BATS: Adaptive Ultra Low Power Sensor Network for Animal Tracking.

Niklas Duda,Simon Ripperger,Markus Hartmann,Alexander Kölpin,Falko Dressler,Frieder Mayer,Klaus Meyer-Wegener,Michael Schadhauser,Björn Cassens,Peter Wägemann,Robert Weigel,Rüdiger Kapitza,Thorsten Nowak,Jörn Thielecke,Jörg Robert,Muhammad Nabeel,Sebastian Herbst,Wolfgang Schröder-Preikschat

doi:10.3390/s18103343

Abstract

In this paper, the BATS project is presented, which aims to track the behavior of bats via an ultra-low power wireless sensor network. An overview about the whole project and its parts like sensor node design, tracking grid and software infrastructure is given and the evaluation of the project is shown. The BATS project includes a lightweight sensor node that is attached to bats and combines multiple features. Communication among sensor nodes allows tracking of bat encounters. Flight trajectories of individual tagged bats can be recorded at high spatial and temporal resolution by a ground node grid. To increase the communication range, the BATS project implemented a long-range telemetry system to still receive sensor data outside the standard ground node network. The whole system is designed with the common goal of ultra-low energy consumption while still maintaining optimal measurement results. To this end, the system is designed in a flexible way and is able to adapt its functionality according to the current situation. In this way, it uses the energy available on the sensor node as efficient as possible.

Highlights

Biologging or the remote tracking of animals by means of attached tags is motivating interdisciplinary research for more than 50 years and has been strongly technology-driven ever since
The wide range of available technical systems for animal logging can largely differ in their technical features determining their applicability studying animals in their natural habitat section 2
The BATS system simultaneously meets the needs for proximity sensing and local high-resolution tracking in a single system by optimizing energy use

Summary

Introduction

Biologging or the remote tracking of animals by means of attached tags is motivating interdisciplinary research for more than 50 years and has been strongly technology-driven ever since. Biologging studies have revealed how movement rates of mammals respond to anthropogenic impact [4] or how social groups of primates make decision on where to move [5] Advanced biologging devices such as Global Positioning System (GPS) -tags automatically collect data and enable remote download, which allows for the observation of large numbers of individuals at a time, maximizes data recovery rates and minimizes the impact on study objects. Considerations for tag to body weight ratio vary across taxa suggesting tags not to exceed 3–5% or for short-term studies a maximum of 10% of the body weight [8,9,10,11] Due to these limitations and the considerably large size and weight of most fully automated tracking devices, around two thirds of avian and mammalian species still cannot be studied [2]. Older techniques which originated between the 1960s and 1990s, which rely on smaller but less powerful animal-borne devices such as VHF-transmitters, geolocators or Passive

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