Nombre
Technical viability study for behavioral monitoring of wildlife animals in Doñana
Fecha de fin
Fecha de inicio
Linares-Barranco, Alejandro
Institución
Universidad de Sevilla
Código
NA
Código de acceso
2010/39
Entidad financiera
ICTS
Resumen
The study and monitoring of wildlife and in semi-freedom has always been a subject of great interest. In recent years the technology allows to design low cost systems that facilitate these tasks: microcontrollers, low-power wireless networks, sensors. GPS, satellite and VHF has been used for position tracking and localization of wildlife. Our aim is to design a low-cost system for local monitoring of wildlife (collar or harness) with local memory and remote access. It will use multiples sensors for behavioral and health monitoring and fuse the processed information locally to reduce the stored data, but allowing to be sporadically transmitted through wireless networks. This collar will be based on an embedded low-power microcontroller with ZigBee transceiver and a set of sensors to provide data (activity and health) of the animal under monitoring: accelerometer,compass,humidity,temperature,microphone,heart rhythm. Unlike other types of collars, the aim of presented one is process data locally. Only when it is closer to a ZigBee node and under request, the collar will dump the information to a host database server. Recognition patterns of activity and the system firmware could be updated remotely. Preliminary consumption calculus estimates that batteries may work 5 to 10 years. Collar weight and volume is determined by batteries (circuits sizes are very small), so we will also study the use of devices that can recharge the batteries (solar cells or kinetic mechanisms). Main objectives of this ICTS call are to test a prototype of the collar in the ZigBee network of Doñana and the communication capabilities of aerial vehicle respect to the collar. A group of two to four persons from Robotic and Technology group of University of Seville will visit Doñana Park during the first week of September in order to test a prototype, mounted in an autonomous remote controlled vehicle, and communications. A possible second visit will be planned at the end of September for testing improvements. These studies have to be made in the Doñana Park because: a real calculus of power consumption can be established depending on the QoS of ZigBee, communication infrastructure of the Park need to be studied for using correct frequencies devices for aerial vehicles communications, and it is very important to interact with other researchers in the field of biology for developing the collar following their recommendations.