An international student team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder is designing an unmanned aerial system called AREND to help protect endangered species in South Africa from poachers. AREND will use sensors to detect humans and large animals and will provide aerial surveillance to conservation efforts. The team is collaborating with universities in Finland, South Africa, Germany as well as companies to build and test AREND, which aims to more efficiently monitor wildlife and reduce poaching of rhinos and elephants.

1. http://facebook.com/teamAREND
AREND
Poachers and Rhinos Shall Not Meet!
Design, build, and test an unmanned sensor aircraft solution to detect and distinguish humans and large animals in harsh environments
AREND
AREND Sensor UAS
Wildlife conservation needs support to protect rhinos, elephants, and other endangered species from cru- el poaching.
AREND is a sensor aircraft for aeri- al surveillance specialized for de- tecting people, large animals, and specific shapes such as crashed aircraft. In stark contrast to a UAV with attached sensors, the AREND aircraft is an unmanned aerial sys- tem (UAS) designed from the bot- tom up to hold select sensors in modular arrangements. This trans- lates to higher quality resource management, efficacy, capability and versatility, and lower operating cost.
University of Colorado Boulder
Dept. Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0429
http://facebook.com/teamAREND
Faculty Lead: jean.koster@colorado.edu
“Aircraft for Rhino and ENvironmental De- fense.” (Arend is Africaans for Eagle)
Martin Harvey Photography

2. An international student team is collabo- rating to compete in the Wildlife Conser- vation UAV Challenge to design, build & fly an unmanned aerial system (UAS) in support of anti-poaching operations in South Africa. This student team is led by the University of Colorado at Boulder, and includes teams from Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland, the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Also collaborating with and supporting / sponsoring this student team is Helios Torque Fusion, Inc., NIST - the National Institute for Standards and Technology, First RF Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, Blue Atmos, LLC of Den- ver, Colorado, Four Winds Interactive Inc. of Denver, Colorado, Skysentry Inc. of Colorado Springs, Lock- heed Martin Corp. of Denver, the Arvada Modelers club, Cargolux, and many tech- nology experts from the region.
The sensors to find rhinos or poachers can also be used cost efficiently to find people and aircraft lost in the wilderness.
Team AREND
Top Level Requirements
* The AREND aircraft system shall be capable of manual/radio flight control with autonomous capabilities.
* The AREND aircraft system shall be capable of quickly delivering a pay- load to any location within its sector, silently performing a search pattern, returning to a landing area, and land- ing safely within the South African park or reserve.
* The AREND aircraft structure shall be capable of supporting payload sen- sor packages within a fixed mass and volume. The allotted structure and volume shall be designed to accept a variety of payload modules, and par- ticularly sized to support the largest expected payload.
* The AREND payload shall include a gimbal-stabilized visual camera sys- tem, capable of capturing quality im- age data throughout the search pat- tern of the flight mission.
* The AREND project shall include a ground sensor network capable of gathering data relevant to the anti- poaching effort and remotely transmit- ting data to other ground systems, air systems, and a command center.
AREND
University of Colorado Boulder
Dept. Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0429
http://facebook.com/teamAREND
Poaching Facts
Rhino poaching statistics show an expo- nential growth in rhino poaching. With 1004 rhinos killed in 2013 and a population of about 20,000, the current concern is that kills are exceeding the birth rate of rhinos. This is an indisputable sign that the extinc- tion of rhinos is becoming a very real possi- bility.
Rhinos are poached for their keratin horns which are believed to have medicinal value in Chinese medicine. Elephants are poached for their ivory tusks which are made into trinkets and decorative carvings.
Proceeds from poaching finance Al-Qaeda terrorism and criminal syndicates.