Marine megafauna includes marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and rays, all of which are under increasing threat. These species occur in low densities over vast areas. Effective, large-scale monitoring is therefore needed to identify and protect their critical habitats.
Drones are an emerging low-cost, low-carbon technology for tracking megafauna from the air. However, drone surveys fail to provide both wide spatial coverage and high image resolution. The higher the drone's altitude, the wider the spatial coverage, but at the expense of image resolution. Yet high image resolution is essential for accurate species identification and body measurements of individuals. To break this compromise between spatial coverage and image resolution, SMART-WING aims to design an adaptive tracking methodology based on an intelligent wing capable of switching between high and low altitude modes.
