A methodology for applying energy harvesting to extend wildlife tag lifetime

Abstract

Wildlife monitoring tags are a widely used technique for studying animals in their natural habitats. At present, these devices are energy limited, based on the mass of the electrochemical battery that can be carried by the animal. Flying animals are particularly restricted, based on a requirement for minimal excess loading. This requirement causes tag lifetimes to be far shorter than would be useful from an ecological perspective, particularly for smaller animals. Energy harvesting is being widely adopted in applications where access to permanent power is limited. If applied to wildlife tags, this approach offers the possibility of extending functional lifetimes indefinitely; however, it presents unique challenges. Practical applications on flying animals are extremely mass limited, subject to environmental stress, and operate at very low frequencies. This paper is meant to address the critical issues in the design task, and makes attempts to place bounds on unknown design parameters, based on literature research where applicable, and on experiment when no data exists. We discuss candidate harvester materials, novel data acquisition tools, and a prototype harvester design.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{MacCurdy2008,
  year = {2008},
  author = {MacCurdy, Robert and Reissman, Timothy and Garcia, Ephrahim and Winkler, David},
  title = {A methodology for applying energy harvesting to extend wildlife tag lifetime},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of ASME IMECE Conference, IMECE2008, 68082},
  url = {http://link.aip.org/link/abstract/ASMECP/v2008/i48692/p121/s1},
}