IDBR: Type A - An unmanned aerial radio tracking system for monitoring small wildlife species

北亚利桑那大学获得了一份合同，开发一种新型无人机系统，该系统集成了无线电遥测接收器和数据处理系统，用于有效探测和定位微型野生动物无线电遥测标签。无人机- RT系统的完整设计，包括部件、装配计划、软件和培训模块，将开放源代码，以广泛采用该技术，并通过用户社区网站进行传播和推广，并在野生动物会议上进行演示。无人机- RT系统还将通过媒体宣传、参与社区活动以及与NAU向上发展计划合作向公众传播，以吸引低收入农村高中学生。该项目的发展目标是生物和生态研究界迅速和广泛地采用这项技术，以实现小型野生动物物种实地研究的新范式。这项技术将通过快速提高了解许多动物物种的地理分布和栖息地需求的能力，使科学研究和社会受益。目前定位和追踪小动物的方法受到栖息地难以接近的阻碍。目前的无线电遥测方法成本高，对人类安全有风险，样本量小，限制了对许多物种的运动和行为的了解。基于无人机的技术有望彻底改变一系列生态领域的研究范式，因为传感平台能够以极低的成本在崎岖地形附近飞行。新的基于无人机的无线电遥测（UAV- RT）系统将大大提高野生动物的跟踪能力，同时使用廉价的商用无线电标签。该系统的设计将反映野生动物跟踪应用的独特需求，包括易于现场组装和维修以及降低火灾风险。一个由北亚利桑那大学和康奈尔大学的工程师和野生动物生态学家组成的团队将设计和建造原型系统，并进行实地部署，以演示和改进其性能。

An award is made to Northern Arizona University to develop a new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system that integrates a radio telemetry receiver and data processing system for efficient detection and localization of tiny wildlife radio telemetry tags. The complete design, including parts, assembly plans, software, and training modules for the UAV-­RT system will be open sourced for widespread adoption of the technology, with dissemination and outreach by a user community website and demonstrations at wildlife conferences. The UAV-­RT system will also be disseminated to the public via media outreach, participation in community events, and collaboration with the Upward Bound Program at NAU to engage low-­ income rural high school students. The development goals of this program target rapid and widespread adoption of the technology by the biological and ecological research communities to enable new paradigms of field research with small wildlife species. The technology will benefit both scientific research and society by quickly improving the ability to understand the geographic distributions and habitat needs of many animal species.Current methods of locating and tracking small tagged animals are hampered by the inaccessibility of their habitats. The high costs, risk to human safety, and small sample sizes resulting from current radio telemetry methods limit the understanding of the movement and behaviors of many species. UAV-­based technologies promise to revolutionize a range of ecological field study paradigms due to the ability of a sensing platform to fly in close proximity to rough terrain at very low cost. The new UAV-­based radio telemetry (UAV-­RT) system will dramatically improve wildlife tracking capability while using inexpensive, commercially available radio tags. The system design will reflect the unique needs of wildlife tracking applications, including easy assembly and repair in the field and reduction of fire risk. A team of engineers and wildlife ecologists from Northern Arizona University and Cornell University will design and build the prototype system and conduct field deployments to demonstrate and improve its performance.