Ultra lightweight Nordic cellular IoT-powered wildlife tracker harvests solar energy for continuous operation

Technology company Hunan Global Messenger Technology Co., Ltd. (Global Messenger) has launched a wildlife tracker designed for use by scientific research organizations and national parks around the world. Weighing just 2.2 g, the ultra-lightweight 'HQBG1202' can be attached to fauna weighing less than 100 g, making it suitable, for example, for tracking smaller bird species' without burdening them. The device allows for precise location tracking through the Nordic nRF9160 SiP's combination of cellular network location data and GNSS trilateration.

Comprehensive data collection

The HQBG1202 collects a wide range of multi-dimensional data including latitude, longitude, speed, acceleration, altitude, Horizontal Dilution of Precision (HDOP), Vertical Dilution of Precision (VDOP), activity level, body temperature and Overall Dynamic Body Acceleration (ODBA). The HQBG1202 can collect 1440 bits of data, and 12,000 sets of acceleration data each day, using the nRF9160 SiP's powerful 64 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 processor with generous 1 MB Flash and 256 KB RAM.

"We have supplied wildlife satellite tracking equipment, technology, and data support to over 300 scientific research teams and management units worldwide," says Chen Zhengrong, Technical Director at Global Messenger. "Our efforts have successfully tracked and monitored more than 20,000 individual animals, collecting over 80 million data points."

Using the nRF9160 SiP's multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT modem with integrated RF Front End (RFFE), this device transmits the collected data to the Cloud, where it can then be accessed by scientific organizations through the corresponding website, relevant software (for PC), or smartphone app.

We chose to use the Nordic SiP primarily for its compact size, lightweight design and highly efficient power consumption

"With the rapid development of intelligent audio analysis and speech recognition, in combination with Nordic's machine learning-capable technology, we have made significant strides in animal language recognition," says Zhengrong. "This presents an incredible opportunity that enables us to monitor wildlife audio in ways that weren't previously possible.

"Our data supports numerous applications, including wildlife resource protection and management, biodiversity conservation, aviation bird collision warning, detection of zoonotic diseases, and habitat environmental protection and assessment."

Extended battery life

Powered by a Li-ion battery, the device can be recharged using harvested solar energy. To optimize efficiency, it dynamically adjusts data collection frequency based on the current battery level. The ultra-low power consumption of the nRF9160 SiP was crucial for the device's ability to operate solely on solar power. The SiP supports both PSM and eDRX power saving modes. For both LTE-M and NB-IoT the PSM floor current is as low as 2.7 µA, and with an eDRX interval of 655 s the average current is 6 µA for LTE-M and 9 µA for NB-IoT.

"We chose to use the Nordic SiP primarily for its compact size, lightweight design and highly efficient power consumption," says Zhengrong. "The impressive internal resources and processing power also helped eliminate the need for an additional processor.

"We developed our application program using Nordic's nRF Connect SDK [Software Development Kit]," Zhengrong continues. "The SDK helped to shorten our entire product development cycle, and we were able to achieve small-batch mass production of the HQBG1202 in only three months.

"Additionally, our decision to work with Nordic was influenced by their comprehensive reference design materials and excellent assistance."

• About Global Messenger
• About Nordic Semiconductor