Sensors (Oct 2018)

BATS: Adaptive Ultra Low Power Sensor Network for Animal Tracking

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

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s18103343
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 10
p. 3343

Abstract

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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.

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