Computer Sciences Colloquium - Building Systems for Wildlife Ecology: The ATLAS Reverse-GPS System and Beyond

Abstract

The talk will focus on the ATLAS wildlife tracking system, but will also describe a newer development, the Vildehaye radio telemetry system. ATLAS is a reverse-GPS system that localizes radio transmitters (tags) attached to wild animals animals. The tags are lightweight (down to less than 1g), inexpensive, and energy-efficient. These properties have allowed us to track animals at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution, leading to a big-data/high-throughput revolution in movement ecology. One ATLAS system has been deployed with 9 receivers in the Hula Valley, and we are now in the process of deploying additional systems in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and possibly Australia. I will also talk about Vildehaye, a system of smart multifunction wildlife radio tags and matching low-power low-cost base stations. The talk will describe what these systems do, how they work, and interesting opportunities and challenges that they present in both Computer Science and Ecology.

This is joint work with Ran Nathan, Yotam Orchan, Tony Weiss, and many other collaborators.

photo: Yotam Orchan