Sustainable IoT Infrastructure for Wildlife

Sustainable Internet of Things Infrastructure Towards Efficient Wildlife Conservation

One main challenge in performing data-driven research in-the-wild is deployment of efficient and effective sensing infrastructure to collect and analyse data in a sustainable way. Traditional data analytics approaches are designed to send all the data to the cloud for decision making; however, areas such as Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) and other protected areas in Sabah, network communication is very poor or not existent. Further, continuous data communication consumes a significant amount of energy which most of the edge nodes cannot afford. Therefore, traditional approaches are ineffective and unsustainable.

Our overall vision is to develop a sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to augment the capabilities of bioscience researchers, wildlife officers, and law enforcement officers. Such IoT infrastructure will help them to conduct their work more efficiently and effectively in the LKWS. Danau Girang Field Centre in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, is a research and training facility co-managed by Sabah Wildlife Department and Cardiff University. Some of the challenges (not a complete list) we aim to address are automatizing remote camera trapping and surveying, environmental data recording, poaching alert devices, tracking devices for antipoaching intelligence gathering. Currently, there isn’t any IoT infrastructure deployed in this area.

Team

Funding

Cardiff University

Cardiff University is the only Welsh member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities.

Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is part of the UK’s official development assistance (ODA). Its aim is to support cutting-edge research and innovation that addresses the global issues affecting developing countries.

Partners

Danau Girang Field Centre

Danau Girang is a collaborative research and training facility managed by Sabah Wildlife Department and Cardiff University.

VortexIoT

Vortex IoT build sensors and networks for harsh environments where conditions are hostile, power supply is limited, AI is needed & data security is critical.

The Things Network

The Things Network provide a set of open tools and a global, open network to build your next IoT application at low cost, featuring maximum security and ready to scale. The Things Network is a proud contributor member of the LoRa Alliance.

Outcomes

Technical Report

Charith Perera, Omer Rana, Pablo Orozco Ter Wengel, Benoit Goossens, Sustainable Internet of Things Infrastructure Towards Efficient Wildlife Conservation: Challenges and Research Directions, Cardiff University Technical Report, 2019