Oh, Give Me a Tracker Where the Elephants Roam

Those that live in regions of the world where megafauna, such as lions and rhinoceroses, are either extinct or only very rarely encountered do not fully grasp the problems that all too frequently occur when these animals cross paths with humans. A baby elephant playing with its mother may be an adorable sight, but when these creatures venture into a rural village or onto farmland, they can destroy homes and crops, and even kill people. Understandably, the individuals living in these places take action to protect themselves, which sometimes means using lethal force.

This is an unfortunate situation all around, but as urbanization kicks into high gear and humans and elephants are thrust into more encounters, these problems are only expected to accelerate. Better solutions that can protect both humans and elephants are sorely needed. Engineers Shebin Jacob and Nekhil R believe that the key to solving this problem involves monitoring the locations of problem animals so that interventions can happen before dangerous human interactions have a chance to take place.

Toward this goal, the team has developed a prototype system for real-time elephant tracking and geofencing. It was built with low-cost components that are practical for use where wireless connectivity is limited. By using GPS trackers that are affixed to elephants, the system continually tracks their locations. When they venture outside of predefined boundaries, the system will send an SMS alert to notify park rangers or other individuals of their activity. This information allows them to drive the animals back to a safer location long before harmful human-elephant interactions can occur.

The hardware is built around a Particle B524 SoM, which is a cellular IoT module that was designed for remote tracking applications. This module is connected to an M.2 Evaluation Board, which makes it easy to develop IoT applications with its onboard nRF52840 microcontroller, and also add additional components like an antenna. An RYS352A GPS module makes it possible to collect high-accuracy location information, and an 1,800mAh LiPo battery keeps everything running when sunlight is unavailable to the 6-volt solar panels. All of the components were fitted into a custom 3D-printed enclosure to protect them from the elements.

Firmware for the device was developed using Particle Workbench. This software uses the GPS module to determine the device’s precise location, then stores the coordinates in a Firebase Realtime Database. A live tracking website was built with OpenStreetMap to allow interested individuals to keep their eyes on the elephants at any time. And when an animal leaves the geofenced area that is considered to be a safe zone, Twilio is leveraged to send an SMS alert.

The system developed by Shebin Jacob and Nekhil R has the potential to protect human and animal life, and also prevent property losses, which makes this inexpensive and simple-to-build device very desirable in areas where people and elephants coexist. For that matter, it could easily be adapted to work with virtually any animal that needs to be closely monitored. If that is something of interest to you, be sure to check out the project write-up. There are plenty of details that can help you in getting your own solution off the ground quickly.