Counting Penguins

Counting penguins is harder than it sounds. With freezing rain, snow, and chilling winds that limit the flight windows for the surveys, it takes scientists using three full days to map the location of 300,000 nesting pairs of Adélie penguins on Antarctica’s Cape Crozier.

Now, UgCS software by SPH Engineering has helped scientists to cut that time to just 3 hours using drones and a new flight path algorithm. Previously, scientists piloted single drones back and forth over swaths of land. Now, a new flight-path algorithm called “Popcorn” automatically sets the course for multiple drones to pass over the same area in just a fraction of the time, while avoiding collisions and meeting strict airspace regulations.