Browsing by Author "Robinson, Simon"
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- ItemDevelopment and evaluation of an animal-borne sensor prototype with integrated kinetic energy harvesting for rhinoceros conservation(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Robinson, Simon; Niesler, Thomas; Wolhuter, Riaan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This project aimed to evaluate the potential of a previously developed kinetic energy harvester as a means to improve the battery life and prolong the deployment of an animal-borne sensor. It builds on animal-borne sensor hardware which was developed previously and forms a part of the ongoing RhinoNET research project. This project has already lead to the development of a GPS enabled animal-borne sensor with accelerometer-based on-board behaviour classification, and which can communicate over a LORA radio network. This project extends this work by extending the existing hardware and integrating a kinetic energy harvester and associated energy management circuitry into the sensor. Energy management software for this updated animal-borne sensor is included, in order to allow the minimisation of its energy usage. This updated sensor and software are tested by practical measurement of the energy output of the kinetic energy harvester and the energy consumption of the animal-borne sensor. Because physical measurements on rhinoceros was not possible, this evaluation was achieved first t hrough s imulation. A rhinoceros behaviour model was designed based on previously gathered behaviour data and used to simulate the operation of the entire animal-borne sensor when subjected to rhinoceros activity. This included the modelling of the energy management software of the sensor, the energy consumption of the sensor, and the energy generation of the kinetic energy harvester. Subsequently, the energy generation of the kinetic energy harvester was measured on a human volunteer. Through this combination of practical measurement and simulation, it was estimated that, when attached to a rhinoceros, the kinetic energy harvester would generate on average 14J of energy per day, which is enough to power the sensor and transmit a GPS location update four times. Alternatively, it can increase the battery life of the sensor by between 3 and 60 days, depending on the frequency of GPS updates. The simulation also showed that when compared to a naïve approach, the energy management software could reduce the energy usage of the animal-borne sensor from 1548.09J to 507.2J per day. It was observed that the energy output waveform of the energy harvester is not ideal for charging a lithium-polymer battery, as used in the prototype. Therefore, future work should include consideration of other energy storage technologies. If these could be found, the integration of the energy harvester would in principle allow indefinite operation of the animal-borne sensor.