Engineers working at IDlab, an imec research group at UAntwerp, and ecologists from the EVECO research group at UAntwerp, have come together to develop an ultralight ultra-low power, highly accurate proximity tracker that will make it possible to monitor the behaviour and movement of small wild animals such as birds, rodents, bats and even toads.
To aid conservation and protection for animals, we need to understand their movements and behaviour, not only from a biodiversity angle, but also for domestic animals, such as livestock animal.
While the behaviour provides valuable information about the animals’ health, the tools to effectively monitor animal behaviour have been lacking, particularly for smaller wild animals. To meet this need, IoSa is developing an ultralight highly accurate monitoring tool that can be used to gather new insights in behaviour and health, but also in early warning systems for livestock health.
IoSA is looking to create logging tools, focusing on highly accurate proximity tracking and ultra-low power data processing.
While traditional trackers are rather bulky and heavy, IoSA has been able to pack these features in ultra-light miniaturised solutions, weighing no more than 5 percent of the animal’s body weight, that will provide insights to researchers, wildlife and conservation organisations, zoos, and farmers on how animals interact and move.
“This multidisciplinary cooperation between different research groups will deliver an IoT-tool that supports the biological and biomedical research domain. UAntwerp puts a lot of effort in connecting researchers in order to create more socio-economic value for a broader public.”, said Silvia Lenaerts, Vice-rector Valorization and Development of UAntwerp.
According to Lucinda Kirkpatrick, CEO of IoSA, “We started with a miniaturised proximity logger, of merely 0,9 grams, as a contact tracer for smaller animals like birds and mice. Each logger emits Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals and registers the BLE signals and the signal strength of other loggers in the vicinity, as well as the signals of a stationary beacon in the monitoring environment. This approach allows researchers to map movements of, and interactions between the animals, and provides valuable data that was unattainable until now.”
