When most people think of drones, they may think of Amazon’s announcement to deliver their packages with drones, or, on the darker side, the use of these remote controlled vehicles (RUVs) in the military. Some may have seen one of their neighbors flying a drone for fun, others may have privacy concerns. What all of the vehicles have in common is that they are either controlled by a ‘pilot’ somewhere on the ground, or a preset flight program.

As it turns out, aerial drones are now also being used in various scientific exploits, including conservation research of whales and dolphins. Following some experimentation, we are in the process of combining a drone-based data collection process with artificial intelligence to count and identify dolphins in real time. And because dolphins spent most of their time below the surface, we are also experimenting with an underwater ROV so we can expand our observations into the underwater world and thus improve our understanding of how dolphins live their lives and what we can do to ensure they continue to around for future generations.

For more information contact Benoit Duverneuil.[/paragraph]