How Flying Robots Might Prevent Illegal activities happening in the Forest - Summary Analysis Draft # 3

How Flying Robots Might Prevent Illegal activities happening in the Forest - Summary Analysis Draft # 3

MEC1281

Summary Analysis

Draft #3 

By Alexander Quah

1st Feb 2021

According to the article “The Flying Robot Might Prevent Deforestation” by Morgen Peck (2012), flying drones were a possible key in acting as a lookout to prevent and stop illegal activities in a forest. In Brazil, illegal deforestation and fires were some of the events affecting the rainforest. Due to low-level surveillance in the rainforest, drug trafficking and mining were also easier to execute. As such, Peck (2012) proposes the use of Quadrotor drones to navigate through the rainforests, acting as a lookout for illegal activities that are happening. The article also outlines the advantages of using Quadrotor drones in 2012 as they were able to fly from side to side, avoid obstacles and even learn to adapt to changes on the go. Additionally, Quadrotor drones were able to sense the environment without direct connection to other drones. The goal of this project was to reduce or stop illegal activities with the use of Quadrotor drones. 

However, the author provided insufficient evidence for the drones being capable of stopping a range of illegal activities. They are limited to being the eyes of the forests, and can also be easily countered by the illegal activists.

The main limitation of the Quadrotor drones is that they are only limited to act as the eyes of the forests. For instance, drones were donated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to organizations to protect the Amazon rainforest (Pfeifer, 2020). They are currently on patrol to monitor illegal deforestation and forest fires. On the first day of deployment, illegal deforestation was captured by the drones in the Amazon rainforest. However, the patrol team could only pick up the footage and monitor the situation. As the drones did not pose a threat, the illegal activities could not be deterred, and law enforcement only arrived after the deed was completed. Government intervention is the only effective measure, but due to rampant corruption in the private sector and the government, this results in an inadequate and flawed policy and legal framework (Food Agriculture Organisation, 2020). This further emphasises the limitation of the drones, which only act as a surveillance tool.

Quadrotor drones are unable to track illegal activities such as poaching, smuggling and trafficking, which occur in either very dense forests or at night as they are unable to fully capture nocturnal activities in the forest. Over the years, thermal imaging has allowed Quadrotors to capture images at night. This advancement in design allows easy capturing of the heat signatures of mammals, as well as equipment that emits heat, such as vehicles for transportation. This function is very effective in the tracking of human activities in areas where drones can fly with ease, such as urban areas. Despite this advancement, the drones are unable to manoeuvre in the jungle region in the dark, where there are many trees and vines in the way of the drones’ flight path. Trees and vines are undetectable by thermal imaging as they do not emit enough heat to be distinguished properly by the thermal sensing camera, similarly to flying blind. Currently, drones are not built and designed to withstand the flight over deep forests or at night, preventing them from tracking the illegal activist throughout their journey (Globalconversation, 2020). 

Lastly, drones can be easily countered with many means. Massey (2013) states that the evolution of the brain is the most obvious example of how we evolve to adapt. Humans have adapted so much that it allowed us to live in different environment and climates. Once the illegal activists find that the drones of the opposition are hindering their activities, they would learn to adapt to the changes to avoid, counter or even disarm the opposing drones. Currently, drones are readily obtainable for purchase and modified drones could even be used to counter the existing drones in the market. 

In conclusion, drones can be effective in reducing illegal activities, but more work must be done to improve the design of the drones and the structure of the opposing organizations to prevent illegal activities from happening.

 

References

BBC Earth. (2020). Human adaptation to their environment. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=eb15693c3dcc421a8c117b7657b7736e

Dronefly (2020). Firefighting drone infographic. https://www.dronefly.com/firefighting-drones-drones-in-the-field-infographic

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2020). Illegal activities in the Forest and their root causes. http://www.fao.org/3/a0146e/A0146E06.htm

Global Conservation. (2021). UAV drones becoming valuable tools in fighting illegal deforestation in global conservation projects. https://globalconservation.org/news/uav-drones-becoming-valuable-tools-fighting-illegal-deforestatio/

Jones, J. (2018). 10 Largest Forests in the World. https://largest.org/nature/forests/

Lumen Learning. (2020). Human Adaptations. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/human-adaptations/#:~:text=Humans%20have%20biological%20plasticity%2C%20or,a%20population%20with%20its%20environment.

Massey, N. (2013). Humans may be the most adaptive species. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-may-be-most-adaptive-species/

Peck, M. (2012). How Flying Robots Might Prevent Deforestation. http//:mashable.com/2012/03/20/flying-robots-deforestation/

Pfeifer, H. (2020). Amazon tribes are using drones to track deforestation in Brazilian rainforest. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/01/americas/amazon-drones-brazil-deforestation-cte-spc-intl/index.html

Schaft, P. (2018). Firefighting Drones Aim to Fly Higher, Help save Lives. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/unmanned/firefighting-drones-aim-to-fly-higher-save-lives/