Q: You gave a recent TED talk on using UAS to protect wildlife in Nepal and search for orangutans in Sumatra. Could you give us a bit more background information about the work you did in Nepal? How are you customizing the UAS for use in Nepal? How will they/are they being used? A: We have been helping the Directorate of National Parks and WWF [World Wildlife Fund] Nepal in the country to develop a UAS for patrolling national parks. They are keen to use this technology to combat wildlife poaching. After several trips to Nepal and working with these partners on the ground, we customized two variants of UAS for them that can be flown completely autonomously from takeoff to landing. They have a smaller UAS that flies for about 20 minutes and a bigger one that flies for 40 to 50 minutes. They will use these UAS to conduct aerial patrols between existing checkpoints to complement their foot patrols.
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