EAGER: Novel Ultralight Sensors for Avian Migration and Movement Studies

该项目的目标是开发、测试和部署新型传感器，用于研究小型鸣禽（20-50克）的活动和迁徙。这种小动物所需的传感器的重量和能量预算（分别为1克和1微瓦）比大多数低能耗设备都要低，并且必须在具有挑战性的环境中生存，并在许多月内收集有用的数据。这个项目有可能对动物行为科学产生重大影响，因为许多重要物种无法用现有技术进行有效监测——例如，大约一半的鸟类体重不到50克。虽然这个项目的重点是开发技术，使其他研究人员能够研究小动物的行为，但该项目将在一个特定的模型物种（黑眼Juncos）上测试这些设备，以加强对繁殖、迁徙和生物多样性的时间变化的理解。最后，虽然该项目的目标应用是动物生物学，但许多基本技术问题与一般的低能量传感问题相同。例如，一个关键问题是，在消耗收集高分辨率数据所需的显著更高的能量之前，使用极低的能量水平检测有趣事件的开始。

The goal of this project is to develop, test, and deploy novel sensors that will enable the study of activity and migration of small songbirds (20-50 grams). The sensors required for such small animals require weight and energy budgets (1 gram and 1 micro Watt, respectively) below most low-energy devices and must survive in challenging environments and collect useful data over many months. This project has the potential to significantly impact the science of animal behavior because many important species cannot be effectively monitored with existing technologies -- for example roughly half of bird species weigh less than 50 grams.While the focus of this project is to develop the technologies that will enable other researchers to study the behavior of small animals, the project will test these devices on a specific model species (Dark-eyed Juncos) in order to enhance the understanding of the variation of timing on reproduction, migration, and biodiversity. Finally, while the target application for this project is animal biology, many of the fundamental technical problems are common to general low-energy sensing problems. For example, a key problem is detecting the onset of interesting events using extremely low energy levels prior to expending the significantly higher levels of energy needed to collect high resolution data.