Animal Tracking System

Problem statement After the Modernization of human civilization, man has been invading the animal habitat at an alarming rate. This has led to increasing conflict between wild animals and humans living in the surrounding area. Forest Rangers try to minimize this conflict by studying the daily life and migration patterns of wild animals; but tracking and studying these patterns manually is very arduous and often ineffective. Zoologists are still wondering about various aspects of the life of different species of animals. For instance, o Why do whales swim to the shore and die[1] o How do dolphins communicate[2]

Proposed Solution We are developing a tracker to be physically attached to animals in the wild to remotely monitor their location for a variety of applications. Whom will it help? Forest rangers trying to prevent human-animal conflict Zoologists studying animal behavior The system could also be customized to benefit nurses and prison guards who want to track the movements of their wards. How will it help? The system informs the villages of possible animal attack or invasion thereby saving human life and/or preventing crop destruction. It helps biologists to solve several mysteries pertaining to the life cycle of several animals. The more we know about these animals, the more we can do to help conserve them. What will the system do? The system will continuously monitor the location of the animal on which it is attached. It will build a map of the animal's territory as it moves and compare it with a global map of the area; in order to find intersections between the animal's territory and human habitat. It will be able to send a warning to the user in case the animal is in close proximity to a village.

Several Tracking Devices can be tracked at the same time. Each device corresponds to an animal. The system will accept from the user the comprehensive biological profile of the animal on which the tracker is placed. The system will be able to detect the animals leaving their territories, signifying the beginning of migration. The device should not detach itself from the animal.

In addition to the above primary functions, we can incorporate the following: The user interface will have a universal map view of all the animals of a particular region but the user can also narrow down and monitor only the category he specifies or a single animal he is interested in. The tracking device may also house a temperature sensor to monitor the animals body temperature, thus enabling analysts to know how temperature of the environment affects the animals lifecycle and its behavior. The user will be able to generate graphs and tables if he inputs the characteristics he wishes to study. For example(age vs. distance travelled, monthly graphs of distance travelled) The tracker can be made water and fire resistant.

What will it need? Wireless networking standards Satellite navigation (GPS) API for global map (e.g. open maps, google maps) What will it have? An attachable tracker device. The User interface comprising of but not limited to maps, graphs and tables, that runs on the remote device which presents the data collected as per users need. Technical Hurdles GPS reception is poor under water and in enclosed spaces like caves. References: 1. http://earthsky.org/earth/why-whales-beach-themselves 2. http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Bottlenose/echodol.html