BANGALORE, INDIA: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is relatively a new technology that can be used in countless applications. With the help of GPS device one can pinpoint the exact location of an animal. Today we have a number of customized tracing products for tracking the birds, terrestrial wildlife and also marine mammals.

GPS, which is a worldwide radio-navigation system, is formed from a constellation of twenty-four satellites and their ground stations. The device uses these satellites as reference points to calculate positions accurate to a matter of meters.

A GPS receiver operates by measuring its distance from each of the visible satellites. Line-of-site visibility is the key to getting an accurate location. The more satellites visible to the GPS receiver, the more accurate the location is.  A minimum of four visible satellites will enable a GPS receiver to get a location within 15 meters (or less) of an actual location.

GPS Collar Functionality

GPS collars offer essentially three different functionalities. The collar includes, as standard, a VHF beacon transmitter, allowing the researcher to track the animal with a receiver and antenna. Like the standard collar, the included mortality option will trigger a higher pulse rate than normal. When the on-board processor determines a GPS fix has been successfully recorded in memory, the VHF transmitter will emit a double pulse every sixth pulse.
 
In addition, a GPS receiver is built-in to the collar.  This allows the user to record, or log, the latitude/longitude location coordinates of the animal on a user-specified time interval. Also stored in memory are date and time tags, and other operational data coming from the GPS satellites. Thirdly, a collar-release mechanism is incorporated into the collar, allowing the researcher to automatically trigger the collar to drop off.

GPS Wildlife Tracking
 
GPS Wildlife Tracking or GPS Telemetry is another high-potential growth area for GPS applications. With ever-smaller dimensions and weights and the availability of solar cell power, these devices can be used in a growing number of cases. For most of us, GPS tracking means probably GPS vehicle tracking systems, but we will show even more spectacular applications in quite different fields.

Collecting GPS data is one thing, but reading the data is often more complicated and, especially in real-time, rather expensive. The simpler ‘passive’ units store the data in internal memory. Data can only be read, once the unit is retrieved by the user or sometimes when the unit comes within the reach of a radio connection between the unit and a (portable) receiver.

More sophisticated GPS wildlife tracking units send the data via a cellular phone network in regular time intervals or on demand in the case of units with two-way communication. It is obvious that this only can function within the coverage area of the cellular phone network.
 
Two-way communication has the extra advantage that the programming of the unit can be modified, even with the unit in use and at distance. This way the user can change the time intervals between reports.

The most expensive GPS wildlife tracking systems send the data in regular intervals via satellites (Argos, GlobalStar). This stands for a really global coverage, but is not a real-time solution, as the satellites cannot be reached 24h/day. Data can only be sent or received when a satellite is overhead.

(With inputs from ATS)

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