Wadi Drone

Product Description

The Wadi Drone is a fixed wing UAV that can carry a small communications payload to receive information from stationary scientific measurement devices – notably, camera traps. It was developed by Conservation Drones in partnership with New York University Abu Dhabi for the UAE Drones for Good competition in 2015, where it won first place, and currently works with the World Wildlife Fund and the Emirates Wildlife Society in the United Arab Emirates’ first national park.

The Wadi Drone website has not been updated since 2016.

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

New York University, Abu Dhabi and Emirates Wildlife Society

Manufacturing/Building Method

The Wadi Drone is built with off the shelf commercial components. The airframe is a Cyclops E, the flight controller is using apm autopilot. They use a Raspberry Pi for the computing module and a combination of Wifi and Xbee for the location and upload of data from the remote camera trap.

Intellectural Property Type

Other

User Provision Model

The product is still in prototype phase. Anyone interested in partnering with Wadi can contact them here.

Distributions to Date Status

Unknown, currently only operating in Wadi Wurayah National Park

Design Specifications

Airframe specifications: - Cruise speed ~ 30-40 knots - Max speed ~ 110 knots - Stall speed @5.1 lbs ~ 14 knots - Climb rate > 2000 ft/min - Wingspan ~ 101 in - Wing area ~ 598 sq in - Fuselage length ~ 52 in.

Technical Support

This is still in a prototype phase, so all support is provided by Wadi

Replacement Components

Unknown

Lifecycle

Unknown, still in prototype phase.

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

To build a drone that can autonomously collect data from remote sensors in a 40 km range.

Vetted Performance Status

During test flights the Wadi Drone collected more than 300 photos from remote camera traps

Safety

Users must take appropriate precautions when operating drones

Complementary Technical Systems

Installed cameras

Academic Research and References

While there isn’t any direct research of the Wadi drone here is one reference to the potential applications in research:

Hadj SB, Rekhis S, Boudriga N, Bagula A. A cloud of UAVs for the Delivery of a Sink As A Service to Terrestrial WSNs. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multi Media – MoMM 16. 2016.

Compliance with regulations

Unknown, still in the prototype phase, but they are working closely with the Emirates Wildlife Society.

Other Information

Wadi Drone video Conservation Drones article iRevolutions article