SENSORS IN WILDLIFE TRACKING

INTRODUCTION

S ENSOR networks are one of emerging technologies that have many applications. These networks are composed of hundreds, and potentially thousands of tiny sensor nodes, functioning autonomously, and serving different purposes. While the set of challenges range from geography routing, power conservation, data management, these sensors also hold the potential to revolutionize many segments of economy and life, from manufacturing, military, transportation, health-care industry, and environmental monitoring. Sensors are often deployed in constrained environments such as deserts, road, forests, or other physical phenomena for monitoring, observing, or detecting a particular event. One of the applications of sensors network, which will be discussed in this paper, is to monitor the health of the animals or report the condition of wildlife habitat for environmental conservation purposes.

APPLICATIONS OF SENSORS IN WILDLIFE TRACKING

Sensors in wildlife tracking are used to track the . movement . migration . position . status of the animals being monitored.

The standard method for tracking wildlife is with the help of GPS

(GLOBAL

POSITIONING SYSTEM).
GPS wildlife tracking is a process whereby biologists, scientific researchers or conservation agencies can remotely observe relatively fine-scale movement or migratory patterns in a free-ranging wild animal using the Global Positioning System and optional environmental sensors or automated dataretrieval technologies such as Argos satellite uplink, mobile data telephony or GPRS and a range of analytical software tools.
A GPS-enabled device will normally record and store location data at a pre-determined interval or on interrupt by an environmental sensor. These data may be stored pending recovery of the device or relayed to a central data store or internet-connected computer using an embedded cellular (GPRS), radio, or satellite modem. The animal's location can then be plotted against a map or chart in near real-time or, when analyzing the track later, using a GIS package or custom software. While GPS tracking devices may also be attached to domestic animals such as pets, pedigree livestock and working dogs, and similar systems are used in fleet management of vehicles; wildlife tracking can place additional constraints on size and weight and may not allow for post-deployment recharging or replacement of batteries or correction of attachment. As well as allowing in-depth study of animal behaviour and migration, the high-resolution tracks available from a GPS-enabled system can potentially allow for tighter control of animalborne communicable diseases such as the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GPS ATTACHMENTS

COLLAR ATTACHMENT

Collar attachment is the primary attachment technique where the subject has a suitable body type and behaviour. Collars would normally be used on the animal's neck (assuming the head has a larger circumference than the neck) but also on a limb, perhaps around an ankle. Suitable animals for neck attachment would include primates, large cats, some bears etc. Limb attachment would work well in animals such as kiwi, where the foot is much larger than the ankle.
HARNESS ATTACHMENT

Harness attachments may used in situations where collar attachment is not suitable, such as animals neck diameter may exceed that of the head. Examples of this type of animal may include pigs, , etc. Large, long-necked, birds such as the Greylag Goose (Anser anser) may also need to be fitted with a harness to prevent removal of the tag by the subject.
DIRECT ATTACHMENT

Direct attachment is used on animals where a collar cannot be used, such as birds, reptiles and marine mammals. In the case of birds, the GPS unit must be very lightweight to avoid interfering with the bird's ability to fly or swim. The device is usually attached by gluing or, for short deployments, taping to the bird. The unit will then naturally fall off when the bird next moults. In the case of reptiles such as crocodiles and turtles , gluing the unit onto the animal's skin or carapace using epoxy (or similar material) is the most common method and minimizes discomfort. In deployments on marine mammals such as phocids or otariids, the device would be glued to the fur and fall off during the annual moults. Units used with turtles or marine animals have to resist the corrosive effects of sea water and be waterproof to pressures of up to 200bar.
OTHER ATTACHMENT METHODS

Other applications include rhinoceros tracking, for which a hole may be drilled in the animal's horn and a device implanted. Compared to other methods, implanted transmitters may suffer from a reduced range as the large mass of the animal's body can absorb some transmitted power.

SOFTWARE
EMBEDDED

Duty Cycle Scheduling - GPS devices typically record data about the animal's exact location and store readings at pre-set intervals known as duty-cycles. By setting the interval between readings, the researcher is able to determine the lifespan of the device - very frequent readings drain battery power more rapidly, whereas longer intervals between readings might provide lower resolution but over a longer deployment. Release Timers - Some devices can be programmed to drop off at a set time/date rather than requiring recapture and manually retrieval. Some may also be fitted with a low-power radio receiver allowing a remote signal to trigger the automatic release.
ANALYTICAL

Locational data provided by GPS devices can be displayed using GIS packages such as theopen source GRASS or plotted and prepared for display on the World Wide Web using packages such as Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) or Maptool. Statistical software such as R can be used to display and examine data and may reveal behavorial patterns or trends.

DATA RETRIEVAL
ARGOS

GPS tracking devices have been linked to an Argos Platform Transmitter Terminal (PTT) enabling them to transmit data via the Argos System, a scientific satellite system which has been in use since 1978. Users can download their data directly from Argos via telnet and process the raw data to extract their transmitted information. Where satellite uplink fails due to antenna damage, it may be possible to intercept the underpowered transmission locally using a satellite uplink receiver.
GSM

GPS location data can be transmitted via the GSM mobile/cell phone network, using SMS messages or internet protocols over a GPRS session.

UHF/VHF

GPS data may be transmitted via short-range radio signals and decoded using a custom receiver.

SMART SENSORS
The sensors that might be used for the purpose of wildlife tracking is smart sensors. In traditional systems, each transducer is specified by its sensitivity, input and output signal ranges, offsets, linearity hysteresis etc, and interest has been always to compensate for some or all deficiencies, somewhere in the system or technique. Linearity between the input and output signals is always coveted. Provision of electronic signal processing by means of an integrated circuit (IC) chip, with the output signals processed so as to bring out them in a standard range, linearly related to the measurand is considered a welcome development. When the traditional transducer, preferably miniaturized so as to be considered as a single device along with the IC chip, it has been treated as a smart sensor. The micro miniaturization of the entire system, if implemented on a single chip it is considered smartness of higher order. In course of time, additional provisions have been incorporated to the extent that they are produced and commercially made available with standard output signals and be replaceable without the need of calibration. It is for these provisions and many more, that they are classed as SMART SENSORS of the present day. Smart sensors may in short be defined as those sensors in which much of the signal conditioning is carried within the transducer housing and which will provide standardized output signals in digital form, and suited for transmission via a communication bus to the central control room. They will linearize their own output, compensate for environmental changes, and include self-calibration and diagnostic functions, both for themselves and for the systems to which they are applied. A soft sensor is a sensor that handles mathematical operations necessary to deliver the output signals in the desired dimensions, after effecting computation on the measured data obtained from other sensors.

CONFIGURATION OF A SMART SENSOR

A typical smart sensor is configured with the three following elements: 1. A physical transducer

2. A network interface 3. A processor and memory core

The signal from the transducer is fed to an A/D convertor so as to be acceptable to the microprocessor as shown in the figure. The processor will perform some processing on the digital data depending on how it is programmed. The network receives the data from the processor and the network interface block handles the transactions between the processor and the network field bus.

It is possible that all the above are implemented on a single chip, thereby attributing the qualification of smartness to the sensing system.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: MONITORING OF DUCKS IN THE GREAT DUCK ISLAND

Great Duck Island (GDI) [2], biologists have placed sensor devices in ducks underground nests and on four inch stilts placed just outside of duck burrows for a nine month monitoring period. This deployed network of thirty two nodes continuously streams data onto the web (http://www.greatduckisland.net). Figure 4 shows these underground sensor devices (1), the four inch stilts (2), and the gateway node (3) which transmits all of the information from these devices to a laptop in the research station (4). The data is then sent to a satellite (5) and ultimately to an Intel Research lab at Berkeley California.

The GDI system is a tiered architecture depicted in figure 5. Each layer has storage to protect against data loss during power outages. The lowest level consists of small battery powered sensors nodes collecting data. The sensor nodes chosen are UC Berkeley mica motes. The accuracy of these devices is remarkably within three percent of the actual value. The gateways transmit sensor data from the patch to the transit network. Since these gateways are solar powered, they are always on. The base station provides WAN and data storage. Replicas of the database are necessary for remote users. The base station connects to the database replicas across the Internet and the data is finally displayed through a user interface.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/GPS_WILDLIFE_TRACKING 2. RECOVERY TARGET TRACKING IN WILDLIFE - FRANCINE LALOOSES, HENGKY SUSANTO, CHORNG HWA CHANG 3. TRANSDUCERS AND INSTRUMENTATION D.V.S MURTY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
I would like to thank Dr. N.S. Dinesh, IISc, Bangalore and all faculties of our department without whose support and inspiration this presentation could not have been brought about to its conclusion.

PROJECT SUBMITTED BY:

PALLABI GHOSH

CLASS ID:

BME/O8/19

UNIVERSITY ROLL NO: 08123031058

DATE SUBMITTED: 06/04/2011