Eastern Cape reserves hosts global initiative to combat rhino poaching

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

A global initiative to design and implement a drone to help combat rhino poaching is said to be gaining ground.

The Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape will on Friday host the international leadership team that is spearheading a world-wide competition to design an un-manned aerial vehicle.

The drone needs to cost less than $3000 and the idea is to put to use in combatting rhino poaching in South Africa.

The intiative was started in the Eastern Cape by the Non Profit Organisation, Reserve Protection Agency, in association with US robotics firm, Kashmir Robotics.

"The worlds leading scientists, students, hobbyists, entrepreneurs and innovators are getting together to create the best UAV solution to save endangered species from extinction. The aim of the Challenge was to create an awareness of what poachers are doing to our precious wildlife, and to energize the scientific community worldwide to apply their technological expertise to a very real and urgent problem - the wholesale slaughter of our Rhino population. " says Brian Bailey, the co-founder of RPA.

Baily says Kashmir Robotics are hosting the challenge which has so far seen 70 teams enter the competition from 18 countries across six continents.

He added that 14 South African teams have entered the competition.

The fact finding leadership team currently in South Africa include Princess Aliya Pandolfi, CEO of Kashmir Robotics, Justin Leto, co founder of NovaLabs, representatives of Aurora Flight Sciences, and Casper Van Zyl of Global Unmanned Systems.