Fawn Rescue Drone Mission Management
A mission management tool for volunteer drone pilots who use thermal-imaging drones to locate fawns hidden in tall grass before farmers mow their fields. Every spring, thousands of fawns are killed or injured by mowing machines across Germany — this tool helps coordinate the rescue effort.
The Problem
Every spring across Germany, tens of thousands of fawns are killed or maimed by mowing machines. Their survival instinct is to freeze and hide in tall grass — the exact behavior that makes them invisible to a farmer on a tractor. Volunteer drone pilots with thermal cameras can spot them before mowing, but coordinating dozens of fields, pilots, ground crew, and farmers at 4 AM across an entire region is the real bottleneck — not the technology.
The Solution
A lightweight mission management platform that connects farmers requesting field scans with available drone pilots. Handles mission scheduling, pilot assignment, and status tracking before the mission — and live coordination between pilots and ground crew during it. All optimized for early-morning, time-critical operations.
Key Features
- Farmer field-scan request workflow with GPS location
- Pilot and ground crew availability and assignment management
- Mission scheduling optimized for dawn operations
- Live fawn-location pins synced from drone remote to ground crew companion app
- Real-time mission status tracking
- Seasonal statistics and impact reporting
How a typical mission works
- Evening before: A farmer submits a field scan request with GPS coordinates and planned mowing time
- Auto-matching: The system finds available pilots within range and sends mission briefings
- Dawn (~4:30 AM): Pilots launch a thermal drone and systematically scan the field
- Fawn located: Pilot drops a GPS marker on the drone remote — the pin instantly appears on the ground crew’s companion app
- No hovering needed: The pilot continues scanning while ground crew navigate to the pin and move the fawn to safety
- All clear: Pilot marks the field as scanned, farmer gets the green light to mow
- Fawn release: Found fawns are released after the mowing is done
Design decisions that mattered
Offline-first was non-negotiable. Missions happen in rural areas at dawn. Cell coverage is spotty. Every critical workflow — accepting a mission, logging a find, marking a field clear — works offline and syncs when connectivity returns.
Minimal UI for 4 AM brains. No one wants to navigate a complex interface before sunrise. Fawn locations are dropped as pins on the drone remote and synced into the mission database automatically. The companion app for ground crew is just a map with pins to walk to.
My Role
Not just the architect and developer — I’m also an active drone pilot (30 missions last year) and coordinate a team of pilots and ground crew as part of a county-wide group of 70 volunteers. In the 2025 season, we flew 175 missions, covered 1,700 hectares, and found 90 fawns. Building a tool I use myself every morning at 4 AM keeps the design honest.