The Open Drone Project

THE CHALLENGE

The drone has presented itself as a ubiquitous tool for transformative change, from taking aerial photos to delivering much needed supplies including medical supplies and food. Wielding this tool, we can leverage high precision images in various light/electromagnetic spectrum to deduce patterns of interest in crops, the atmosphere, soil and water ecosystems. By so doing, we can identify threats to these precious ecosystems and safeguard them against degradation.

THE SOLUTION

We have come up with a simple to build and assemble aerial platform that can be used for persistent monitoring to ensure patterns are deduced early and that they can lead to forecasting future threats. Upon capturing patterns of interest, data is stored in a retrieval system to build a data warehouse which will eventually be used to train neural networks/machine learning to deduce patterns and make forecasts.

WHY OPEN HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE?

Using an open ecosystem will ensure continued evolution of the product through public participation and peer review, as well as ensure rollout of the solution to as many countries as possible. Our idea of the future is being able to forecast carbon sequestration and related issues threatening delicate ecosystems from climate change. We cannot do it alone!

THE STANDARDS

For a list of Open Standards we have adopted in evolution of this project, please see the Standards page.

DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY

Take a look at our data security and privacy policy.

GETTING STARTED

Head on to our repositories for a breakdown of how to get started.

To build a drone using our designs, review the read me instructions at: team-asr/od-CAD: Repository for Open Drone CAD files (github.com)

For some sample photos of what we've thus far collected, please head to: team-asr/od-Data: Repository for Open Drone Data, including aerial imagery and analytics (github.com)

For the latest on the software and algorithms we are working on, please head to: team-asr/od-GCS: Repository for Open Drone Ground Control Station (github.com)

LICENSES

Our work is licensed under open standards, and each repository lists licenses associated with it. You are welcome to copy, amend, distribute the software, install it, or build your drone. Feel free to reach out to us in the event you require support to setup your own open drone.

Licenses include:

• GNU General Public License
• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0) License

THE TEAM

The Open Drone Project is in active development and maintained by the following team members:

• Moses gichangA, Founder & Lead Engineer.
  • gichanga[at]as-research.org
• Samuel Muniu, Implementation Lead, Soil & Environment Engineer.
  • monio[at]as-research.org