From radio telemetry to ultra-low-power sensor networks: tracking bats in the wild

Sensor networks have successfully been used for wildlife monitoring and tracking of different species. When it comes to small animals such as smaller birds, mammals, or even insects, the current approach is to use extremely lightweight RF tags located using radio telemetry. A new quantum leap in tec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE communications magazine 2016-01, Vol.54 (1), p.129-135
Main Authors: Dressler, Falko, Ripperger, Simon, Hierold, Martin, Nowak, Thorsten, Eibel, Christopher, Cassens, Bjorn, Mayer, Frieder, Meyer-Wegener, Klaus, Kolpin, Alexander
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bats
Low power electronics
Mobile nodes
Networks
Radio telemetry
Sensors
Telemetry
Tracking
Weight reduction
Wildlife
Wireless communication
Wireless sensor networks
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sensor networks have successfully been used for wildlife monitoring and tracking of different species. When it comes to small animals such as smaller birds, mammals, or even insects, the current approach is to use extremely lightweight RF tags located using radio telemetry. A new quantum leap in technology is needed to overcome this limitation and enable new ways to observe larger numbers of small animals. In an interdisciplinary team, we are working on the different aspects of such a new technology. In particular, we report on our findings on a sensor- network-based tracking solution for bats. Our system is based on integrated localization and wireless communication protocols for ultra-low-power systems. This requires coding techniques for improved reliability as well as ranging solutions for tracking hunting bats. We address the technological and methodical problems related to system design, software support, and protocol design. First field experiments have been conducted that showcase the capabilities of our system.
ISSN:0163-6804
1558-1896
DOI:10.1109/MCOM.2016.7378438