APOLLO 6| Scanning for Lifeforms
Awards & Nominations
APOLLO 6 has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Scanning for Lifeforms
Drone-based lifeform detecting application
Summary
A hyperspectral imaging camera mounted on a drone, attached with a hygrometer, and directly connected to a mobile application that is precisely designed to ensure the availability of information to any user through displaying real-time information of biodiversity distribution, changes in the desired lifeform over time, and its reformation predictions in a certain timespan. Aligning with the real-time info received from the drone, the application will synergistically represent the status of any detected lifeform – seed viability, land cover, humidity, temperature, and a prediction model - by analyzing the bio-signature from reflected polarized light on an interactive map to the user.
How We Addressed This Challenge
In the last 50 years, major changes happened in the Ecosystem, including unsustainability in water supplies, uneven availability of food in variety of places, and exponential spread of diseases in certain areas. According to NASA’s data there were 4 factors that caused the changes in the biodiversity loss which accordingly lead to the changes in the ecosystem: habitat change, invasive alien species, overexploitation, and nutrient loading (or pollution). In fact, out of the 2 million species on the planet, between 200 and 2,000 species become extinct every year. It’s true to say that this could’ve been avoided if there was a proper tool to precisely monitor and predict species distribution.
Hence, we developed an application that will help in the detecting, monitoring, and predicting the biodiversity of the eukaryotic photosynthetic kingdom in any desired time range. The solution consists of two stages: data collection and data analysis.
Data collection will be done by the help of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A hyperspectral camera will be mounted on a drone facing down, utilizing the most effect type of scanning, push broom scanning. It captures the full spectral data as the drone moves forward using sensors that must be perpendicular to the drone’s flight direction.
As the drone uses push broom scanning, the hyperspectral camera will detect the fractional circular polarized light reflected from each organism. This allows us to obtain a spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene. How each organism interacts with incident light changes, and certain organisms has their unique fingerprints in the electromagnetic spectrum, spectral signatures. The detailed spectral information allows us to identify subtle differences between fingerprints of species according to their wavelength and detect new lifeforms if its wavelength data is a first-of-its-kind. Finally, data is displayed on an interactive, easy-to-use mobile application which includes a global map for biodiversity distribution as well as a plant scanning function to inform users with details about each plant
We hope that this project will inform the public society about the importance of Earth’s biodiversity, acts as a place for scientists, and protect our planet’s biodiversity.
How We Developed This Project
Scanning for lifeforms had been a challenge for us to overcome in the last decades. Although some solutions were made to facilitate the challenge, they were insufficient and needed something to complement it. Although it might obtain such data but with multiple satellites, a hyperspectral camera, along with a hygrometer, inclined on drones can be more accurate since both soil and spectral data are obtained simultaneously.
Generally, satellites are used to scan for bio-diversity on earth by using spectrometers with high wavelengths to detect the biodiversity. In addition, the same satellite don’t provide information like ambience and seed viability, temperature, and more, which accordingly any prediction model won’t operate smoothly without these data.
And that is why we created our solution. Our solution is perfect in complementing the current satellite-based remote sensing, since we offer an airborne remote sensing technique which uses a cost-effective alternative to the heavy and costly airplanes, drones. According to the NCBI “A higher detecting quality can be obtained from shorter distances” which is a perfect complement to the lower quality but larger map coverage that satellites provides us with.
Finally, the mobile application was developed using the IDE Android Studio and the framework use was flutter, due to its easy usage and cost-effectiveness.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
"A problem well stated is a problem half solved," is a quote we deeply believe in as we tackle most of our scientific endeavors. In order to create a solution that enables humans to better understand global patterns of biological diversity, we had to start from the basics, learning through NASA’s articles about simple concepts like what is biodiversity and how remote sensing and spectrometers are used to study it. Not only that, but we also read articles about how the data, after its collection, is analyzed and visualized. Specifically speaking, how NASA’s instruments utilizes the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum to understand and explore life on earth – and that’s where our project stems from. We also learnt how to differentiate and understand (read) different data, like spatial and temporal resolution, and more. Lastly, the GLOBE visualization system and NASA’s worldview helped us know information (green up, green down, land cover, and more) for certain species we worked on and how they’re modeled (i.e., epiphytic bryophyte, Oak Tree (Quercus robur) Small leaved lime, or tilia cordata).
Project Demo
https://youtu.be/o7_FfELUPDI