Meeting Abstract

P3-114   -   modular, low Cost, open source, lightweight GPS trackers for research applications Schulz, A*; Irick, E; Seleb, B; O'Brien, C; Hu, D; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; Window to Wildlife; Georgia Institute of Technology akschulz@gatech.edu https://www.schulzscience.com/

GPS trackers in our cell phones or key-ring finders and indispensable and commonplace. However, commercial GPS trackers for wildlife applications are often ten to one hundred times more expensive. Moreover, wildlife, conservation, and behavior trackers have several functions that don’t allow you to modulate the different components. Our main goal on this project was to allow researchers a cheap and easy way to design a tracker for different applications. Using a pre-built printed circuit board from Lightbug, we built a simple waterproof housing that includes a top panel for attaching different devices and a bottom panel for attaching to different animals. We present a case study of attaching this device to eagles using solar panels and a feather clip allowing 1 year of battery life before recharging, pinging a GPS location twice a day, with a total mass of 55 grams and a cost of $160 per tracker. Included is an interface that allows customization of desired outputs and the ability to modulate the recording of other data. We have simple build and assembly instructions that allow anyone to build these trackers and have different modules that researchers and conservationists can explore