A research team at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has developed an AI-powered drone system. It is a low-cost, AI-controlled drone that has the ability to detect and track camels from the air. This provides technological support to one of the oldest traditions in Saudi Arabia.
The innovation will offer camel herders with an alternative to the costly GPS collars and satellite tracking systems. That are in use today to keep track of roaming livestock.
As claimed by a KAUST press release, the technology will not only reduce the herding costs, but also provide greater understanding on camel behavior, migration patterns and graze.
Professor Basem Shihada led the design and development of the system. The team of professors and engineers under him used commercially available drones equipped with standard cameras.
They used airborne cameras to film small groups of camels in Saudi Arabia. They also trained a machine-learning model that has the ability to locate and track the animals in real-time.
Chun Pong Lau, a scientist at KAUST, indicated that the AI model showed that there is no random movement of the camels. The study discovered that camels especially the older ones are likely to graze in organized groupings covering long distances but will definitely rejoin their herders at dusk. In order to make sure that the animals were not disturbed, the drones were not flown at lower than 120 meters as camels were observed to be sensitive to drone noise.
Camels remain culturally and economically important to the Arabian Peninsula. They contribute over SR2 billion (534 million) annually to the region. Herders in remote areas continue to face significant challenges due to difficult landscapes. These challenges often result in livestock losses and road accidents.
Shihada’s team intends to increase the number of videos by using larger and more diverse herds. They also aim to refine the AI system’s effectiveness, precision, and long-term applicability in the sector.
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