Intel Corp. is embarking on a new environmental effort using artificial intelligence (AI) and drones to preserve Brown’s Ranch Trailhead, a 30,000-acre wilderness desert in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Working with the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy, the goal is to scour the desert floor to find and eliminate an invasive plant species that is known to help cause wildfires as well as for killing native plants.
The non-native grass, called buffelgrass, is traditionally eliminated through years of conservancy volunteer field work. However, with aerial drone surveys and AI processing, the effort can be done in a matter of hours, Intel said.
Intel developed an AI algorithm that detects features of buffelgrass including its color, distribution, shape and density. The algorithm then tells the aerial drone to locate the plant species, allowing for easier detection and then elimination.
In the video, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy volunteers talk about how buffelgrass and other non-native plants are threatening Brown’s Ranch Trailhead and how they can have an easier time finding out where the plants are spreading so they can eliminate it before it overtakes and kills more native plants.
The plants are not only a threat to other plants, but they also cause wildfires to burn longer and farther in the southwest and other arid parts of the world, said Justin Owen, CEO of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy.
