WWS – Wildlife Disease Warning System

AI-supported camera-based system solution for the early detection of wildlife diseases

The subject is the camera-based monitoring of wild animal populations with the aim of recognising diseases at an early stage and preventing epidemics. The development is based on the example of African swine fever. At present, there is a lack of early detection systems that make it possible to intervene in a timely and targeted manner. The aim is to develop a camera-based system that uses the possibilities of AI-supported image processing to analyse movement patterns and automatically detect other behavioural abnormalities, e.g. aggressiveness, that indicate pathologically relevant events. For this purpose, the individual movement of each body part is modelled as a relative movement and suitable mobility characteristics are derived that enable a classification between healthy and pathologically relevant. Visualisation is carried out using a traffic light solution. The automated triggering of predefined alarm routines is included. The system solution has considerable potential for scaling to other indications, which underlines its commercialisation potential.

Funding organisation: BMWK