AntennaWare, a company developing antennas for on-body and on-metal applications, has announced a collaboration with Icoteq, developers of TagRanger, a portable wildlife tracking system used by conservation researchers worldwide. The partnership sees AntennaWare's BodyWave™ UWB antenna integrated into the TagRanger tag and Finder device, to support UWB localisation for conservation fieldwork.
TagRanger provides researchers with an infrastructure-free tracking platform. The system uses LoRaWAN for long-range network communication between the portable Finder gateway and tags attached to animals. When a researcher closes in on a tagged animal, a separate UWB radio takes over, enabling precise ranging down to centimetre level, and wireless download of GPS and operational logs from the tag. TagRanger is tracking species including pangolins, mongoose, wild dogs, and giant tortoises across multiple continents.
UWB tags placed on animal bodies are subject to the same body-absorption and detuning effects that affect all on-body wireless devices, degrading the signal and reducing accuracy and reliability of the connection, particularly in Non-Line-of-Sight conditions. This matters significantly in wildlife tracking, due to the dynamic movement of the animal, which, combined with environmental features, results in Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) conditions. It is therefore necessary that the tracking system performs equally well in all directions to maintain accuracy.
AntennaWare’s BodyWave™ UWB antenna is designed for NLoS communications, improving the link budget by 6 to 12 dB. For our partners, this results in a system that provides increased communication range and accuracy in on-body localisation applications, along with reduced power consumption, i.e., “Double the distance, half the power consumption”.
A recent trial in South Africa showed system performance when a TagRanger tag detached from a tortoise shell and disappeared into the undergrowth, completely camouflaged by the environment and essentially invisible to both the eye and in photos. Using the UWB tracking capability of the Finder, the team located the tag, narrowing down to centimetres until the tag was found, remaining invisible to the eye.
Craig Rackstraw, Managing Director of Icoteq, comments, "We did a proper 360-degree antenna gain plot with BodyWave™, and it came out really even all the way round. That uniformity is exactly what we need for accurate tracking, and that's what we get with the BodyWave™ antenna."
AntennaWare's CEO and Co-Founder, Dr Gareth Conway, said, "A tag on an animal faces the same on-body wireless challenge as any wearable device. BodyWave™ was designed precisely for this: a better range and more accurate data under challenging conditions. As a company, we are excited to see BodyWave™ technology being used in animal conservation and the broader impact that accurate and convenient tracking in areas without existing wireless infrastructure will have.”
Click here to learn more about TagRanger.
