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

预计微机电系统（MEMS）的技术进步将允许在大范围内密集部署具有传感、通信和处理能力的节点，用于监测目的。在这个项目中，我们通过传感器网络提供了一种替代普通多跳数据转发的方法。我们的方法建议转发传感器数据并将其存储在选定的节点（存储节点）中，之后漫游移动节点将从这些节点收集数据。这种新的操作设置将利用移动技术的最新进展，将传感器网络从繁重的多跳通信任务中解脱出来。它将利用各种不同移动设备的广泛可用性（例如，电话、掌上电脑和特定领域的无线设备，如健康监视器）以及用户或无人驾驶车辆移动性的潜力。移动设备配备了一个或多个无线网络接口（蓝牙、802.11等），这使得它们能够以一种特别的方式与无线电范围内的存储节点连接和交互。使用传感器节点进行持续监测的一个特别受益的应用是野生动物监测。动物学家将能够发现野生动物的社会行为模式（如动物运动模式），并结合小气候条件，以保护动物的栖息地，确保它们的健康。目前监测和保护野生动物的方法往往仍然依靠劳动密集型技术来观察动物的行为或用已建立的（但过时的）甚高频遥测设备跟踪动物的活动。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，汇集到实验室，并以集中的方式进行处理。目前严重依赖现场工作人员进行动物监测，这导致了相当大的雇用成本和辅助设备的间接费用。使用人员夜间在森林中单独工作也会对健康和安全产生重大影响，健康和安全执行局的审查很可能在未来危及许多此类协议。

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. Zoologists would be able to detect social behavior patterns of wild animals (e.g. animal movement patterns), in combination with microclimate conditions, to protect the animals' habitat and ensure their well-being. 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.