SDR Fish Tracker
Team: Russel Graves, Ryan Zaugg
Sponsor: Aggie Air Lab
Project Overview
Design a drone payload capable of reading remote RFID biotags embedded in critically endangered Lost River Suckers.
- Current methods of scanning for remote biotags are dangerous and expensive. Mounting scanning hardware to a drone is far safer and more cost effective.
- Enabling the Fish and Wildlife Service to safely and effectively scan for remote biotags gives them the data necessary to save the endangered fish
Deltistes luxatus Lost River Sucker
System
The Lotek Equivalent Aquatic Scanning Hardware (LEASH) payload
Methods
- Used Autodesk Inventor to create and simulate the three design iterations
- 3D printed the finalized components
- Used GNUradio to interface with the SDR hardware
- Stored fish tag information ROS nodes through the drone’s hardware
Conclusion
The scanning hardware was successfully implemented:
Lotek Tag
Tag Frequency Spectrum
Tag Frequency Shift Keying