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International Journal of Computer Informatics & Technological Engineering Volume -1 Issue 5, August 2014

PAPER ID: 2014/AT/IJCITE/V1-E5/11

86

PROTOTYPE DESIGN FOR WILDLIFE MONITORING OF TIGERS USING MANET

Reena Gangwar

Research Scholar,

Department of computer Science & Engineering

Mewar University, Rajasthan

Abstract-- The objective of this paper is to propose use of wireless

sensor network using MANET protocols and to design a Mcollar

for wildlife monitoring in Jim Corbett national park ,

Ramanagar (Uttarakhand) . In this paper we proposed,

specially designed collars with sensor node attached would be put

on wild animals like Tigers . These collars would collect data

through sensors and transmitted via a Mobile adhoc Network

(MANET) for the desired parameters from the vicinity of the

animal and transmit it to the base station so that the information

could be used by the researcher and wildlife officials for their

studies. This paper also discusses the methodology and

experiences of designing and implementing the functional model

and also suggests use of solar powered devices , which would

optimize the power related problems in proposed model when we

scaled the proposed prototype

Keywords— MANET , Mcollar , Jim Corbett , Solar energy ,

Routing protocol , wild life.

I. INTRODUCTION

Sensor networks and Mobile Adhoc networks (MANET)

have been identified as one of the most important key

technologies of the 21st century [1]. Akyildiz et.al [2]

describes sensor network to be composed of a large number of

sensor nodes that are densely deployed either inside of the

phenomenon or very close to it. The position of the sensor

nodes need not be pre-determined and engineered. This allows

random deployment in inaccessible terrains or disaster relief

operations. On the other hand, this also means that sensor

network protocols and algorithms must possess self-

organizing capabilities. Wireless communications and these

small sensor nodes are often combined to form wireless sensor

networks (WSN).[6][7]

This paper is an attempt by the researcher to propose a

model using MANET and sensor network to monitor the

movements and habitat of Indian Tigers in Jim Corbett

National park , Ramnagar (Uttarakhand in India) . The

proposed model will collect the positional and some other

relevant information of the animal and wildlife , the

information further forwarded to a base station using mobile

adhoc network (MANET) nodes and transmitters . The system

would contain sensors namely position (Global Positioning

System), head orientation and light sensors to observe the

positional parameters for the animal. A microcontroller would

drive the system to record the input from these sensors after

specified intervals of time, and write it in the data base. We

have proposed use of some solar energy based self-powered

components to solve the power problem in MANET.

II. TIGERS HABITAT IN JIM CORBETT

Jim Corbett National Park is the haven of Tigers in India.

[3] Here you will find out the maximum density of Tigers in

comparison to the rest of the world. Now the conservation of

Tiger has become a great matter of concern in the country as

well as outside the country. The movements of tiger from one

forest to another are creating a problem to save the Tigers in

this park . In order to identify the correct positions of wild life

animals specially tigers , use of wireless sensors network may

help in this matter ..

III. RELATED WORK

Counting wild animals is essential to monitor their

population. In Corbett a yearly census is carried out during

summers to approximate the numbers of major animal variety

to recognize trends and resolve the accomplishment of

organization practices on wildlife. Dedicated counting of

tigers is done every fourth year as part of an All India Tiger

Census under Project Tiger. After the introduction of the

Wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972, a special conservation

programmed focused on tiger defend subsequently, more

protected areas were brought under the umbrella of Project

Tiger. Project Tiger was launched on 1st April 1973 from

Dhikala(Uttarakhand) in Corbett National Park with the

pronouncement of 9 tiger reserves (including Corbett)

including 268 tigers. For the first time in November 2010 ,

information and communication technology is being used for :

linking significant tiger reserves in the GIS Domain for

developing management support system together with crime

detection, spreading of information through web and growing

a National Tiger Monitoring and Habitat Evaluation System

with provincial protocols.

Initiatives have been taken at various different institutes to

use wireless sensor networks for wildlife/habitat monitoring.

Some of these initiatives are done as a research projects like

The Great Duck Island (GDI) [4] project addresses the

International Journal of Computer Informatics & Technological Engineering

Volume 1(5), August 2014

Author’s Research Area: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Page No: 86-88

87

Reena Gangwar : PROTOTYPE DESIGN FOR WILDLIFE MONITORING OF TIGERS USING MANET

requirements for habitat monitoring in general. It proposes

architecture for monitoring seabird nesting environment and

behavior. The currently deployed network consists of 32

nodes on a small island off the coast of Maine streaming

useful live data onto the web. The Princeton’s ZebraNet

Project [5] is an inter disciplinary effort with thrusts in both

Biology and Computer Systems to track zebra behavior at

Mpala Research Centre, Kenya. The goals are to develop,

evaluate, implement, and test systems that integrate

computing, wireless communication, and non ‐ volatile

storage along with global positioning systems (GPS) and other

sensors so that the systems can be used to perform novel

studies of animal migrations and inter species interactions

IV. DESIGN GOALS & CHALLENGES

Wildlife movement and monitoring application need a good

discussion with technical experts and wildlife officials , we

collected some facts to design a region specific model of this

proposed application with a good discussion . Following are

the observation and end results :

a. To track the positional data of Tigers , we should

keep the positional values on base station , the

intermediate MANET nodes (Tigers , other wild

animals ) will transfer that data to base station .

b. Tigers are difficult to trace and tranquilize, thus

the human intervention should be minimum after

the Mcollar( a Mobile collar in neck of animal) is

fixed on them. This leads to a design goal that

nodes remain powered for at least one year, and

some alternate power source like solar powered

cells may help in that situation .

c. Tigers generally tend to fight for their food , thus

the physical design of the Mcollar should be

strong enough .

d. The frequency of data collection from different

mobile nodes and sensors should be configurable

on runtime at base station and independent of

other Mcollar ,so that the user of the system can

check the frequency at which data is recorded

from the Mcollar .

e. In future an image sensor can be fixed on the

Mcollar , it is not included in this paper .

f. To efficiently utilize energy, it is desirable that the

components of Mcollar which are not being used

at a particular instance should be kept in power

save or sleep mode.

g. The payload of data packet to be transmitted

should be variable in size and data collected from

the different sensors of Mcollar should recorded

on a flash memory device .

A. Energy Constraints

As it has been observed and discussed that the nodes

(Mcollar) should remain powered for at least one year, thus it

is very important that energy should be spent in a very

economical way. Some good methods of power savings on

both software and hardware should applied . For that we

suggested the operating voltage of the node at 3.0 -3.5 V,

since this would lead to less power consumption for the same

current flowing in the components. All the components are

chosen such that they work on 3.0 -3.5 V range and easily

recharged by solar panels .

B. Physical Design Constraints

The proposed Mcollar requires the GPS antenna and RF

antenna to be at the top of the belt. It is also required that the

belt should fit comfortably in the neck of the animal. The belt

and the components of the node must be protected from

physical damage by climatic conditions or fights or attacks.

The node needs to be protected from dust, rain and heat . The

solar film and light sensor need to be protected by a

transparent covering. As a prototype the weight of the Mcollar

to be less than 750 g in case of Tigers .

V. PROTOTYPE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN a. In our prototype design each Mcollar shall fitted with

a sensor node which has a microcontroller, GPS

antenna , RFID antenna , flash memory device ,

sensors and a solar panel film for charging the

batteries.

b. The Mcollar is fitted with some Tigers to carry the

sensor node.

c. The nodes mostly keep in sleep mode for energy

saving . They are synchronized with global time

scale by GPS, thus they all wake up simultaneously

and then the MANET discovery protocol will start .

After the nodes are able to discover each other, data

exchange will start .

d. The Mcollar thus exchange each other’s data and

keep on exchanging the data until they come in the

range of a base station. The data of all the nodes is

transferred to the base station. Base station instructs

the node to initiate the deletion of that particular data

after it has reached the base station.

e. The nodes go back to sleep mode and wake up again

at a scheduled time and then node discovery protocol

start again .

f. The Mcollar sensor nodes will use thin-film energy

storage cells coupled with solar and thermal energy

harvesting devices to provide truly perpetual power.

Intelligent mesh networking management techniques

lower power consumption by minimizing wireless

communications and distributing data processing.

SPAN uses dynamic reconfiguration of wireless

communication pathways to reduce data re-

transmission rates and save power. Real-time power

monitoring and adaptive duty cycling enable optimal

energy budgeting. These advances in energy

management will enable troops to infiltrate areas

with a covert, low-maintenance sensor net, capable of

persistent surveillance and alert reporting.

International Journal of Computer Informatics & Technological Engineering

Volume 1(5), August 2014

Author’s Research Area: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Page No: 86-88

88

Reena Gangwar : PROTOTYPE DESIGN FOR WILDLIFE MONITORING OF TIGERS USING MANET

Figure 1 : Prototype design for M-collar

VI. CONCLUSION

This paper is part of research carried by the researcher and

only a theoretical proposal with a functional prototype of

Mcollar that work as a node and transfer that information to a

mobile base station discussed here . The use of recommended

prototype would make a proper functional system to

overcome the problems of proper monitoring of Tigers and

other wild life animals in Jim Corbett National park .Another

significant approach proposed in this papers to make the

system self powered in terms of energy requirements using

solar panel and films . Mounting the node on a Mcollar and its

actual testing of the system with the help of Jim Corbett

National park and Uttarakhand Forest Department in real

environment is our future goal to save the Tigers .

VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to thank my committed PhD supervisor Dr.

M .K. Sharma for their continuous support and guidance

throughout this work.

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[3] http://www.corbettnationalpark-india.com, accessed on 10

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