Happy New Year MarMam!
Are you using drones to obtain morphological measurements of marine mammals? Need a LiDAR altimeter for your drone?
Our research team recently developed a 3D printed LiDAR altimeter system (called "LidarBoX") that can easily be
attached and swapped amongst different drones (DJI Phantom, Inspire, and Mavic) to help obtain accurate altitude readings for photogrammetric analysis of marine mammals. Our team and colleagues have been using LidarBoX to obtain body size measurements on several
different species, including bottlenose dolphins, gray whales, humpback whales, and minke whales.
We recently published this work in the Drone Systems and Applications.
Citation:
K.C. Bierlich, Drummond Wengrove, Clara N. Bird, Robert Davidson, Todd
Chandler, Leigh G. Torres, and Mauricio Cantor. 2024. LidarBoX: a 3D-printed, open-source altimeter system to improve photogrammetric accuracy for off-the-shelf drones.
Drone Systems and Applications. 12():
1-10. https://doi.org/10.1139/dsa-2023-0051
Abstract
Drones provide a privileged birds’-eye view for collecting high-resolution imagery for morphometric and behavioral
sampling of animals. Biologically meaningful measurements extracted from overhead images require an accurate estimate of altitude, but current commercial drones include inaccurate barometer estimates. Recent proposals for coupling altimeter systems to drones
have provided customized, open-source solutions, yet assembling such altimeter systems requires advanced technical skills, thereby potentially limiting their use. Here, we built upon recent advances to provide a 3D-printed enclosure for an altimeter system
that is inexpensive, self-contained, easy to setup, and transferable across commercial drones. We depart from a published, successful data logger system composed of a GPS and LiDAR sensor and design a more compact and self-powered version (“LidarBoX”) that
easily attaches to a variety of commercial drones. We compare flight times with/without LidarBoX attached, test flight maneuverability and performance, and validate the reliability of measurement accuracy. To make LidarBoX accessible, we provide an open-source
repository with design code and files and a how-to-assemble guide for non-specialists. We hope this work helps popularize LiDAR altimeter systems on commercial drones to improve the accuracy and reliability of drones as a sampling platform for ecology and
wildlife research.