Miniaturized, Reconfigurable Sensor Node with Localization Functionality for Measurement Data Acquisition and Contact Monitoring between Bats

安装在蝙蝠背部的移动传感器节点是研究组第一阶段研究的关键部件之一。该子项目（TP 7）以移动节点为研究对象，针对当前可用能量，对系统架构、小型化、电源管理、天线、结构设计、通信协议等方面进行了成功的研究。根据实地试验的结果，并与其他分项目密切合作，产生了一些新的问题，将在第二个项目期间进行调查。这项工作的主要目标是进一步提高能源效率，以确保更长的运行时间，并使使用更小的电池将系统的重量降低到1.5克以下。此外，还将研究在电源中增加能量收集的可能性。这些任务也会给移动节点的结构设计带来额外的负担。此外，实地试验显示了蝙蝠社会行为的有趣的生物学研究问题，这些问题可以通过监测飞行期间和休息期间个体之间会面的时间和持续时间来解决，并基于估计相对距离。对于移动节点之间所需的异步通信，将研究适用的系统概念。除了本地化任务外，第二个项目期间还将增加传感功能。在第一步，简单的生理参数，如体温将被分析。在整个项目过程中，还将监测蝙蝠的心跳。此外，附加的传感器将用于对飞行高度、加速度和方向的粗略估计。由于这些额外的传感器将增加能量消耗，它们将被上下文敏感地激活。因此，将实现硬件和软件的完全可重构性，从而使任何单个移动节点从定位到传感平台的原位修改能够分析某个生物问题。该功能将由地面站网络通过远程遥测链路进行控制。

The mobile sensor node mounted on the back of the bats is one of the key components that has been investigated during the first period of the research group. This sub-project (TP 7) focused on the mobile node and successfully researched on the system architecture, miniaturization, power management, antennas, structural design, and communication protocol with respect to the currently available amount of energy.From the results of the field trials and in close cooperation with the other sub-projects several new questions arose, which will be investigated during the second project period. A further enhancement of the energy efficiency for ensuring longer periods of operation as well as enabling the use of a smaller battery for lowering the weight of the system below 1.5 g will be the main goal of this work. Also the possibility of adding energy harvesting to the power supply will be investigated. These tasks will also put additional burden on the structural design of the mobile node. Additionally, the field trials showed interesting biological research questions for the social behavior of bats, which can be addressed by monitoring the time and durations of meetings between individuals during flight and resting periods based on estimating the relative distance. For the required asynchronous communication between mobile nodes applicable system concepts will be investigated. In addition to the localization tasks sensing functionalities will be added for the second project period. In a first step, simple physiological parameters, e.g., body temperature will be analyzed. Over the project course of time also the heartbeat of the bat will be monitored. Furthermore, additional sensors will be implemented for coarse estimation of the flying altitude, acceleration, and orientation. Since these additional sensors will increase the energy consumption, they will be activated context sensitively. Therefore, the total re-configurability of the hard- and software will be realized, which enables the in situ modification of any individual mobile node from localization to a sensing platform to analyze a certain biological question. This functionality will be controlled by the ground station network via a long range telemetry link.