Manu the drone tackles biosecurity

A new drone, used by Boffa Miskell and LINZ for biosecurity work and recently demonstrated in a virtual field trip, has been named 'Manu’ – the winning name in a nation-wide schools competition.

Students from Waterloo School in Lower Hutt chose ‘Manu’, meaning ‘bird’ in Māori, because the drone flies like a bird. The Name the Drone Competition was part of this year’s LINZ-sponsored ‘High Country Hi-Tech’ virtual field trip series produced for LEARNZ. Schools around the country participated in the field trips via live feeds, learning about how geospatial technology is being used.

In two online videos, Boffa Miskell biosecurity consultant, Marcus Girvan, explained Manu’s specifications and how drone technology can be used in biosecurity work. Live phone links enabled Marcus to answer children’s questions directly in an interactive Q & A session.

Boffa Miskell provides biosecurity services to LINZ and Manu was purchased jointly, as part of a shared programme of innovation to find more cost-effective means of undertaking pest management.

“There is significant potential in biosecurity work for drone technology,” Marcus says. “Using GPS technology and the drone’s GoPro camera, we can see where pest plants are located and monitor change in distribution over time – more safely and cheaply than by helicopter.”

There is also potential for the industry to develop recognition software that would enable the drone to identify a particular pest plant species and apply targeted herbicide, with potential cost benefits.

So far, Manu has been mainly used on wilding tree projects in the Mackenzie Basin. However there are plans to use it at Mid Dome in Southland, which Marcus says is a very challenging project because it is “a vast, inaccessible area with a massive wilding tree problem, and very changeable, extreme weather that makes timing control work a big issue.”

Boffa Miskell has completed a preliminary one-year, wilding tree control work contract for the Mid Dome Wilding Trees Charitable Trust. The contract has now been extended for another three years.