Jellyfish monitoring on coastlines using remote piloted aircraft

Abstract

In the last 10 years the number of jellyfish shoals that reach the swimming area of the Mediterranean Sea are increasing constantly. The term "Jellyfish" refers to animals from different taxonomic groups but the Scyphomedusae are within the most significant one. Four species of Scyphomedusae are the most conspicuous ones inhabiting the studied area, the Barcelona metropolitan area. Jellyfish are usually found at the surface waters, forming big swarms. This feature makes possible to detect them remotely, using a visual camera and image processing algorithms. In this paper we present the characteristics of a remote piloted aircraft capable to perform monitoring flights during the whole summer season. The requirements of the aircraft are to be easy to operate, to be able to flight at low altitude (100 m) following the buoy line (200 m from the beach line) and to be save for other users of the seaside. The remote piloted aircraft will carry a vision system and a processing board able to obtain useful information on real-time.