WILDSENSING: A Hybrid Framework of Mobile and Sensor Nodes for Wildlife Monitoring

预计微机电系统的技术进步将使具有传感、通信和处理能力的节点能够在大面积密集部署，用于监测目的。在这个项目中，我们提供了一种替代普通的多跳数据转发通过传感器网络。我们的方法建议转发传感器数据和它的存储在选定的节点（存储节点），从那里的数据将被收集以后由漫游的移动的节点。这种新的操作设置将利用移动的技术的最新进展，以减轻传感器网络繁重的多跳通信任务。它将利用各种不同的移动的设备的巨大可用性（例如，电话、PDA和域特定的无线装备设备（例如健康监视器）以及用户或无人驾驶车辆移动性的潜力。移动的设备配备有一个或多个无线网络接口（蓝牙、802.11等），这使得它们能够以自组织方式与无线电范围内的存储节点连接和交互。这项新技术的主要好处之一将是为生物学家提供更有效地监测动物的手段。动物也将受益于这些小而高效的RFID设备提供的福利。整个技术将允许一个wholesuite的新的和更详细的问题，动物的运动和空间behaviors.Current方法，野生动物监测和保护往往仍然依赖于劳动密集型技术，使动物行为的观察或跟踪动物运动与建立（但过时）VHF遥测设备。典型的监测模式是派遣工作人员到现场的每个传感器节点，收集传感器读数。原始数据由工作人员收集，汇集在实验室中，并以集中的方式进行处理。目前，严重依赖外地工作人员进行动物监测，导致了相当大的就业成本和辅助设备的间接费用。使用人员在夜间单独在森林中工作也有重大的健康和安全影响，健康和安全执行局的审查可能会在未来危及许多这些协议。

Technological advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are envisaged to allow the dense deployment of nodes with sensing, communication and processing capabilities in large areas for monitoring purposes. In this project we offer an alternative to plain multi hop data forwarding through the sensor network. Our approach suggests the forwarding of sensor data and its storage in selected nodes (storage nodes) from where the data will be collected later on by roaming mobile nodes. This new operational setting will leverage recent advances in mobile technology to relieve the sensor network from heavy multi-hop communication tasks. It will exploit the vast availability of a variety of different mobile devices (e.g., phones, pdas and domain specific wireless-equipped devices such as health monitors) and the potential for user or unmanned vehicle mobility. Mobile devices are equipped with one or more wireless network interfaces (Bluetooth, 802.11 etc), which makes them able to connect and interact with storage nodes in radio range, in an ad hoc manner.An application that would particularly benefit from continous monitoring using sensor nodes is wildlife monitoring. One of the primary benefits of this new technology will be to offer biologists the means to monitor animals more effectively. The animals too will benefit through the refinements to welfare that these small andefficient RFID devices provide. This entire technology will permit a wholesuite of new and more detailed questions about animal movements and spatial behaviour to be answered.Current approaches to wildlife monitoring and conservation often still rely on labour intensive techniques for making observations of animal behaviour or for tracking animal movements with established (but outmoded) VHF telemetry equipment. The typical mode of monitoring is to send staff to every single sensor node in the field, to collect sensor readings. The raw data is collected by staff, brought together in a lab, and processed in a centralized manner. The heavy reliance on field-staff for animal monitoring currently incurs considerable employment costs and overheads for ancillary equipment. The use of personnel working alone at night in forests also has significant health and safety implications, and the scrutiny of the Health and Safety Executive is likely to jeopardise many of these protocols in the future.