System for Automated Radio Tracking of Animals in the Field

该项目将开发一种灵活的工具，用于对动物进行实地研究。一组塔（至少两个）允许测量微型无线电发射机的XY位置，在必要时同时提供几十个对象的几乎连续的数据。在适当的生境中，每个塔的测向精度可与目前徒步或车辆或飞机上广泛使用的劳动密集型技术相媲美。该系统没有移动的平底锅，使用现成的或稍作修改的无线电发射机操作，这种无线电发射机通常用于野生动物研究。设计目标包括高数据可用性；软硬件模块化；包括自动校准、环境数据、注视报告和安全功能；并且能够在从小型研究地块到500公里的塔阵列的规模上进行配置。使用一些现有的设备将允许前端的快速原型，这反过来将促进健壮的，用户友好的界面。这一点很重要，因为这种设备要被野外生物学家接受并正确使用，几乎需要防弹操作。该仪器的现场测试将与生物学家同事正在进行的项目合作进行。这种仪器的可用性将(1)降低许多研究的成本；(2)大幅度（如果需要的话，以数量级）提高数据收集的速度和每日覆盖范围；(3)允许在没有自动收集和实时显示数据的情况下在后勤或技术上不可行的关键调查；(4)提供高可用性和灵活性，从无线电发射机收集遥测信息，提醒调查人员注意重大事件，并与其他仪器的并发数据协调。关键调查包括生态学和保护生物学的基础研究，对濒危物种或其替代物的调查，对人类主导栖息地中问题物种的研究，以及对疾病传播和野生动物康复的调查。

The project will develop a flexible instrument for conducting field studies of animals. An array of towers (at least two) permits measurement of XY locations of miniature radio transmitters, providing nearly continuous data on dozens of subjects simultaneously if necessary. In suitable habitat, accuracy of direction finding by each tower is comparable with present labor-intensive techniques widely used by observers on foot or in vehicles or aircraft. The system has no moving pans and operates with off-the-shelf or slightly modified radio transmitters of the kind commonly employed in research on wildlife.Design goals include high data availability; modularity of software and hardware; inclusion of autocalibration, environmental data, stares reporting, and security features; and able to be configured on scales from small study plots to 500-km arrays of towers. Use of some existing equipment will permit rapid prototyping of the front end, which in turn will promote robust, user-friendly interfaces. This is important, because nearly bulletproof operation will be necessary for such an appliance to be accepted and properly employed by field biologists. Field testing of the instrument will be done in collaboration with ongoing projects run by biologist colleagues.Availability of such an instrument will (1) reduce the cost of many studies; (2) greatly (by orders of magnitude, if desired) increase the rate and daily coverage of data gathering; (3) permit critical investigations that are logistically or technically infeasible without automated collection and real-time display of data, and (4) provide high availability and flexibility to gather telemetered information from radio transmitters, alert the investigators to significant events, and coordinate with concurrent data from other instruments. Critical investigations include research fundamental to ecology and conservation biology, investigations of endangered species or their surrogates, studies of problem species in human-dominated habitats, and investigations of disease transmittal and wildlife rehabilitation.