Animal behaviour monitoring tool for research, conservation, and agriculture purposes
Summary
Engineers of IDlab, an imec research group at UAntwerp, and ecologists of EVECO research group at UAntwerp, combined their expertise to develop an ultralight low power, accurate proximity tracker that enables monitoring the behaviour and movement of small wild animals such as birds, rodents, bats and even toads. IoSA combines the expertise of engineers of imec-IDlab and ecologists of UAntwerp to create logging tools, focusing on highly accurate proximity tracking and ultra-low power data processing. While traditional trackers are rather bulky and heavy, IoSA was able to pack these features in ultra-light miniaturised solutions, weighing no more than 5% of the animal’s body weight. IoSA’s solutions will provide new valuable insights to researchers, wildlife and conservation organisations, zoos, and farmers on how animals interact and move. Lucinda Kirkpatrick, CEO of IoSA: “We started with a miniaturised proximity logger, of merely 0,9 grams, as a contact tracer for smaller animals like birds and mice.