GPS-Less Animal Tracking System
Apurva Joshi, Naga VishnuKanth I, Navkar Samdaria, Sumit Bagla and #Prabhat Ranjan
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Near Indroda Circle, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India 382007
{apurva_joshi,vishnu_kanth,navkar_samdaria,sumit_bagla,prabhat_ranjan}@daiict.ac.in
Abstract—Mobile target tracking in Sensor Network field is an
important area of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application.
The speed of target and constraints on WSN nodes vary from one
application to another. In this paper, we report our work on
application of WSN to track movements of Small Turtles in
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Campus. This would allow
wildlife researchers to understand behaviour of these turtles.
These turtles are very small in size and Global Positioning
System (GPS) based monitoring is not very useful. So we have
developed a GPS-less system to track movement of these turtles.
In addition, we monitor the micro-climate around the animal as
well as monitor period of hibernation during winter time. We
have carried out trial of this system in our campus with a
simulated mobile target carrying one node with a grid of four
fixed sensor nodes. This system uses Incremental Grid Based
Approach to localize moving target. The data obtained is passed
on to a web based data server through a gateway and movement
is shown on a digital map using a browser based visualization
software utilizing Google Map APIs (Application Programming
Interface).
Keywords: GPS-less tracking, Localization, Mobile target
tracking, Sensor Network, Wildlife tracking.
I. INTRODUCTION
We have been working on a number of applications of
WSN to help wildlife researchers. They cover a variety of
animals of differing size and behaviour. In this paper we
report on the work done on monitoring the movement of
small animals (e.g. small turtles) in WII, Dehradun campus
through a network of sensor nodes. The sensor network
permits the monitoring of movement patterns, micro-climatic
preferences and hibernation details of turtles.
These turtles mostly inhabit bushy areas in the WII
campus. They move around in search of food and during
winter time go into hibernation. Traditionally they have been
studied by placing an identification mark on their shell and
recording where they have been found. Later on if they are
found again, their location and time is noted. This method
mostly depends on the possibility of a human locator being
able to locate it and between two readings a lot of time
elapses. We do not get any information about their behaviour
during this time.
We are trying to apply WSN technique of locating a mobile
target to small animals such as turtles. This would allow
wildlife researchers continuous information about the
movement of animals within the campus. Since these animals
978-1-4244-3328-5/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE
move at very slow speed and remain confined to a limited
region within the campus, WSN based tracking is a good
possibility. We also try to provide information regarding
micro-climate by placing temperature, light and relative
humidity sensor on the node being placed on the body of
animal. We also place an accelerometer on the body to detect
when animal goes into hibernation. All this information on
continuous basis would provide researchers with a wealth of
information compared to what has been possible traditionally.
We have described basic methodology in [1]. However we
briefly describe some of the aspects here for continuity. One
of the techniques used for wildlife tracking is placing GPS on
each mobile sensor node, which becomes expensive in terms
of cost, energy consumption and also increases the size and
weight of the sensor node. Use of GPS to track small animals
like turtles will exceed the maximum permissible limit of
about 25 gms for a device which can be placed on the body of
small turtles (typically weighing less than 500 gms). Thus we
need to use a localization technique which does not depend on
GPS technology. So we need to deploy a GPS-less technology
for tracking such small animals. We describe the
methodology, we have adopted for this system in next section.
II. METHODOLOGY
We plan to set up a grid of receiving stations carrying fixed
sensor nodes (anchor nodes). Currently we are assuming that
these would be deployed in a regular manner assuming
uniform 2-dimensional terrain. A mobile node (animal node)
would be deployed on the body of the turtles to be tracked.
The mobile node would have a radio transceiver and would
send out radio beacons in form of a data packet periodically.
The data packets would contain a sequence number to
identify the packet and may contain sensor readings as well.
These beacons would be received by one hop anchor nodes
and they would record signal strength of the packet in form of
RSSI value as well as link quality.
Since the system would be deployed within the WII
campus, we are assuming that anchor nodes would be ON all
the time and listening to incoming packets. This is possible
due to the fact that a number of street light posts are available
near the area of deployment. This removes one of the
constraints of WSN i.e. ON/OFF duty cycling the nodes to
reduce power consumption and make the task at hand easier
to handle. However animal node would be limited in its
energy resource and would need lot of effort to keep the
energy consumption to be as low as possible without
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exceeding the weight limit and performing the desired
functionality without reducing the life time. This becomes the
main challenge for developing such nodes. We plan to do this
by selecting low power consuming components as well as
duty cycling the animal node. Reduction of communication
traffic would be achieved by local processing of information
as much as possible.
In absence of any direct location sensors, we would need to
utilize indirect way of estimating location of the animal node.
We have discussed the various possibilities of it in [1] and
also described localization algorithm we plan to use. While
there may be possibility of using some other algorithms, right
now we would use only one of them to make sure that rest of
the system works reliably before we try other algorithms.
As mentioned earlier, our localization algorithm is based
on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), which is
discussed in detail in the following section.
III. LOCALIZATION ALGORITHM
In this section we discuss an “Incremental Grid Based
Approach” [2], which is based on measurements of received
signal strength. Consider four anchor (fixed) nodes A, B, C
and D placed at the corner of the square area, such that the
animal node (mobile) is in the transmission range of the four
anchor nodes. We assume that the positions of the anchor
nodes are known to us (either by placing them at known
position or by using GPS). The square area enclosed by the
four anchor nodes is defined as grid. The grid is divided into
large number of grid cells. Each side of the grid is calibrated
with the readings of RSSI values measured by the incoming
animal node packet, taken along each side of the square in
both directions of the anchor nodes forming an RSSI matrix.
The complete algorithm is based on this RSSI matrix
which can be termed as “Environmental matrix” or
“Calibration matrix”. This environmental matrix is dependent
on various factors like atmospheric condition, nature of
terrain, density of vegetation, etc.
The animal node periodically transmits a data packet as a
beacon. The anchor nodes receive the signal and record its
RSSI value and send this value to the central system or the
base station. Based on the RSSI reading taken earlier along
the sides of the square (environmental matrix), adjacent grid
points are identified which bound the measured value.
Figure1: Four anchor nodes each at corner of the square
From each of these grid points we draw rings with centre as
the respective anchor node. So for each anchor node we have
certain set of rings. Each grid cell is initialized with a zero
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value and is incremented every time it falls in the region
overlapped by the set of rings. Finally the grid cells with the
maximum count are identified and their centroid is used as the
estimated location of the animal node.
Figure 2: Incremental grid based algorithm
For example, in figure 2, we have a square area with four
anchor nodes A, B, C, and D at its four corners. RSSI
readings are taken along each side of the square in both
directions to-and-from the anchor nodes. The readings are
taken at regular intervals of distance. From A, the readings
are a2,1 , a2,2 and so on up to a2,n towards B. Similarly from A
towards D, the readings are a1,1 , a1,2 and so on up to a1,n.
For each beacon packet, base station would collect a set of
RSSI values received by four anchor nodes with same
sequence number. Base station would carry out the following
tasks to estimate the location:
1. Starts with anchor node A. First compares the RSSI
values with measured signal strength along the sides
connecting the anchor node A to its neighbors. It
marks the intervals between which the RSSI values
lies. For example in figure 2 it lies between a1,2 and
a1,3 in the horizontal direction and a2,2, and a2,3 in the
vertical direction. It is possible that we may get
multiple intervals for some values. We keep all the
intervals for our purpose.
2. Now from each interval we draw a ring covering the
grid cells.
3. Grid cell count of the cells falling in between the
rings is incremented, implying a stronger possibility
of the animal node lying within that region.
4. It repeats the procedure 1 to 3 for the rest of the
received RSSI values obtained from the 3 remaining
anchors.
5. The centroid of the cells with the maximum count
gives us the approximated location of the mobile
node.
It is easy to see that the size of the grids determines the
possible smallest granularity of location error. Small grids are
thus preferred but small grids need more calculation time and
more calibration effort.
 IV. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
In applications like wildlife monitoring, nodes may have
different capabilities and execute different functions. For
example, some nodes may have larger battery capacity and
more powerful processing capability; which would allow
them to serve as data gathering nodes (gateways). Some
nodes may only be responsible for sensing and sending
collected data to the gateway nodes.
In GPS less tracking of turtles, the three types of nodes
corresponding to the system being implemented for the
project are: 1) Animal Node (mobile) - These individual
sensor nodes are affixed to each of the turtles being tracked.
2) Anchor Nodes – These nodes propagate the signals from
the animal node to the base station 3) Base Station - An on-
site high power station which relays collected data back to the
data server via a suitable user interface.
Each type of node has a different requirement. Sensor
nodes are built using XBee and XBeePro Modules by
MaxStream. The XBee and XBeePro OEM RF Modules
support the unique needs of low-cost and low-power wireless
sensor networks. These modules require minimal power and
provide reliable delivery of data between devices. The
modules operate within the ISM 2.4 GHz frequency band and
are pin-for-pin compatible with each other. The hardware
used for animal node consists of an XBee module. Since the
animal node has to last long without any intervention, there
should be an efficient utilization of power. XBee being low
on power consumption is therefore used in animal node.
Whereas XBeePro, due to its larger transmitted power, is
used in anchor nodes that are required to communicate over
longer distances. As the base station can be powered with
high capacity, it is provided with a more range efficient XBee
Pro module. The XBeePro module improves the receiving
capacity of the base station. Along with XBee modules,
animal and anchor nodes also have an Atmega32
microcontroller [3] and a 3.3V voltage regulator (sensors will
be annexed at later stage of the project).
Figure 3: System Architecture
As shown in the figure 3, it can be noticed that, the overall
system would be viewed as a grid with four anchor nodes
placed at the corresponding corners which continuously relay
the data received from the animal node to the central server
or the base station. Dotted arrow lines in the figure 3 between
the two nodes indicate that the two nodes are in the
transmission range. In case one of the anchor nodes is not
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able to send data directly to base station, it would relay it
through another anchor node.
V. COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL
As the communication between nodes is being carried out
wirelessly, it is essential to follow a suitable and robust
communication protocol for effective transmission of data
between nodes.
The proposed protocol depends on the type of node
transmitting the data. Each XBee of a node is assigned a
unique 16-bit address, thereby making each node unique.
XBee are made to function in API mode [4]. API mode
enables transmission of data in the form of packets called
frame. Each frame transmitted by a node is appended by its
node ID ensuring the receiver to identify the node from which
the data is being received.
The communication takes place in two steps:
1) Between the animal node and the anchor node.
2) Between the anchor node and the central base station.
Animal node is programmed to broadcast burst of ten
packets having same sequence number at every interval of 5
minutes. Each packet contains sequence number, animal node
ID and additional relevant data (data from sensors regarding
temperature, humidity etc.). Each burst of packets bear a
unique sequence number. The packets from the animal node
are then broadcast (multicast) to the anchor nodes.
Anchor nodes receive the packets from animal nodes.
Anchor nodes use inbuilt functionality of XBee to find RSSI
value and then calculate its average value for each animal
node based on common sequence number. Anchor node
creates a new packet comprising of average RSSI value,
anchor node ID, animal node ID and sequence number of the
corresponding received packet. The data is then transmitted
to base station using base station address (unicast mode).
VI. IMPLEMENTATION
The system implementation requires a grid network to be
formed at the area where turtle has to be tracked. The grid
consists of an anchor node at each of its corners. The node
implanted on turtle’s shell communicates with anchor nodes
present in its vicinity. The anchor nodes in turn communicate
the data received from the animal node to the base station.
The data is stored at the base station. The programs
running at the base station continuously processes the data
when complete set of data for a sequence number is received.
It then calculates the distance and bearing angle of the mobile
node with respect to the top right anchor node, ‘D’. The
records whose data set is not complete are kept in buffer and
they are processed as and when the rest of the data
corresponding to the same sequence number arrives.
The records, for which the data set is complete, are
analysed and the program generates a matrix representing the
count of the grid cells. Figure 4 shows the state of the matrix
when the algorithm tries to determine the most probable
location of the mobile node using the signal strength received
at the anchor node located at the top right corner of the figure
2. Each number represents the count of the smaller cell. The
arc made by the non-zero numbers is distinctly visible.
Moreover, since the localization is done based on
experimental RSSI values with respect to distance, multiple
rings are formed for the analysis of a single node. Therefore,
the count of the smaller cells in the diagram can be noted to
be more than 1 in many cells. The smaller cells having higher
counts are surrounded by the smaller cells having
comparatively lesser counts.

Figure 6: Testing location with four anchor nodes

VII. FIELD TRIALS

Trials were conducted at the campus of Dhirubhai Ambani
Institute of Information and Communication Technology
(DA-IICT), Gandhinagar, Gujarat. A set of preliminary tests
under same environmental conditions were conducted for
measuring the variation on signal strength (RSSI value) with
Figure 4 distance for a RF transceiver. It was found that averaging
multiple measurements over time can give more precise
location as compared to taking single measurements over a
given period of time. Experimental data for variation of RSSI
with distance is shown in figure 7. A calculated value of
signal strength based on free space propagation (calculated
value) is also shown along with the measured value (with
average and without average).

Figure 5

The final matrix as shown in the figure 5 is the addition of

the four matrices obtained by incrementing this matrix with
respect to each anchor node. The probable location of the
mobile node is taken to be the centroid of the cells with the
maximum count (which in this case is 8).
The distance and bearing angle of the mobile nodes with
respect to the anchor nodes is then used to find the latitude
and longitude of animal node using known position of the
anchor node (B). The location along with the time stamp,
sequence number and other information is stored in MYSQL
database. These record are used by the system (PHP program
running on base station) to reproduce the results on a web
using Google map, displaying the position of the anchor nodes
and that of the mobile nodes along with the unique sequence
number as shown in figure 6.
Figure 7: RSSI and average RSSI vs. distance
As expected, from the experiments conducted, it was clear
that the exact distance between the animal node and anchor
node cannot be determined using RSSI values. However the
errors can be minimized. Generally, these measurements are
impacted by both time-varying and static environment-
dependent errors. Time-varying errors (e.g., due to additive
noise and interference) can be reduced by averaging multiple
measurements over time. The variance found in the received
signal strength has been found to be random but there

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definitely seems to be a gradual decrease with increase in due to environmental conditions such as temperature,
distance between the radio modules. humidity and vegetation as follows:
The final system was tested on a small scale using four 1) In Free Space Region on 3rd of June, 2008 at 6 AM
anchor nodes forming a cell and an animal node. The cell was 2) Vegetation Region on 3rd of June, 2008 at 6 AM
of dimension 60m X 60m. Four anchor nodes (A, B, C, and D) (The above 2 testings are performed simultaneously, the
were placed at the corners of the cell at a height of 6 feet. testing was done before the sunrise)
Animal node was kept 6 inches above the ground level. Prior 3) Vegetation Region: 4th of June, 2008 at 7:30 PM
to testing, RSSI value along each side of square at an interval (This testing was done after the sunset)
of 3m was determined and stored in four 1 X 20 matrices.
During the implementation of the system one of the anchor The results of the testing are depicted through the graphs as
nodes was used as a base station. shown in figure 10 and figure 11.
Through these testing’s we observed that the change in
Dist(m) 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 environmental condition has a significant effect on the RSSI
Matrix values thus enhancing the error in tracking the location of the
AB 45 48 51 46 50 52 63 69 71 72
turtles. With the environmental deviations coming into play
the four (1 X 20) calibration matrices will change accordingly.
BC 41 45 48 54 56 58 60 63 64 66 Therefore, an automation algorithm for dynamic calibration of
CD 36 48 55 58 60 63 63 64 67 71 environmental matrices has to be designed.
AD 48 53 52 44 49 52 5 57 64 64
Figure 8.a

Dist(m) 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60
Matrix
AB 61 72 65 67 66 67 67 79 79 78
BC 68 69 70 70 72 75 81 80 79 80
CD 73 75 63 65 64 66 65 66 70 71
AD 68 70 71 72 73 75 69 77 80 79
Figure 8.b
Figure 8: RSSI value vs. Distance with respect to four anchor nodes
Figure 10: RSSI values for free space and vegetation region
As shown in figure 9, the animal node is moved following
the dotted line path in the grid but the path actually tracked
by the algorithm is different which is shown by solid line.
In our experimental results, the mean error observed was
3.2m and 4.3m in x and y co-ordinate respectively. The peak
error values were 6m in x co-ordinate and 8m in y co-
ordinate.

Figure 11: Variation of RSSI with time

VIII. FUTURE WORK

Figure 9: System testing with four anchor nodes
The testing was done in the free space at DA-IICT football
ground as shown in the figure 6. The system testing and
calibration of the four sides was done keeping the same
environmental conditions. Therefore to observe the effect of
changing environmental conditions, a set of experiments were
performed to study the variation in the signal strength (RSSI)
To abate the deviation due to changing environmental
conditions an algorithm for automation of environmental
matrix needs to be incorporated. One possible solution can be
to scale the ideal calibration matrices based on change in
environmental conditions. This can be done by inspecting the
RSSI values of the packets send by the anchor nodes and
comparing them with the corresponding values from the

124
matrices. This way a scaling factor can be calculated which
can be used to adjust the matrix values.
Also, nodes have to be optimized with respect to time,
energy and space.

REFERENCES
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[2] Chong Liu, Kui Wu, and Tian He; “Sensor localization with Ring
Overlapping based on Comparison of Received Signal Strength
Indicator”, 2004 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and
Sensor Systems (MASS), October 2004.

[3] “ATMega32 Data Sheet,”

www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc2503.pdf

[4] “XBee manual,”

http://www.maxstream.net/products/xbee/manual_xb_oem-rf-
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