Title

Drones for Marine Science and Agriculture

Author(s) Information

David Caldera, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoFollow
Sai Murthy, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoFollow

College - Author 1

College of Engineering

Department - Author 1

Computer Engineering Department

College - Author 2

College of Engineering

Department - Author 2

Computer Science Department

Advisor

Dr. Franz J. Kurfess

Funding Source

Noyce School of Computing

Acknowledgements

Darrick Oliver, Peter Marsh, Emily Lau

Date

10-2023

Abstract/Summary

Our research project was launched at Cal Poly in 2019 with the goal of assisting researchers at the CSULB Shark Lab in detecting sharks from aerial images. Under the guidance of Dr. Franz J. Kurfess, students trained an object detection algorithm using shark images and were able to achieve high rate of detection. Following this success, the team has constructed multiple drones and expanded their research to include applications in the fields of agriculture and ecology. This summer the goal is to use a iPhone 14 Pro in lieu of a traditional camera system for real-time object recognition. Object detection was found to be achievable on the iPhone 14 Pro through using YOLO which provided good inference times and precision for object recognition. Research was continued looking toward low-cost methods of object recognition, as well as further development using iPhone 14 Pro setting a base for future projects using the device.

October 1, 2023.