Projects:2020s1-2250 Feral Animal Detection using IR Thermal Imagery

Students: Trong Nam Dinh - Huacong Hong

Supervisor: Dr Danny Gibbins

Background In Australia, tens of millions of native animals are killed by feral cats and foxes each year. This is already causing the extinction on many species and, thus, a control measure is required to detect and record the presence and distribution of these feral cats in the field. To alleviate human resources, the system needs to be autonomous and can operate at night or in a very low light condition since feral cats are frequently nocturnal. Our objective is to design a low-cost automated system using thermal and 3D depth cameras to detect and capture images of the feral cats and other animals. Since these two types of cameras are ideal in night-time operation, they are the best fit for this project. The system also requires a control unit for processing signals and data directly in the field; in this case, a Raspberry Pi running Unix-like system will be used. After the animals are detected and captured, offline image processing will be required for classification of animals on the control unit for a full autonomous processing system.