Prototypesssss...

 

In the picture, a falcon equipped with the logger (the device between the wings). The black cilinder sticking out is the antenna.

I have received and tested one of the very first prototypes of the GNSS loggers. It’s a trial and error process that may need quite some time to get it right, therefore I am already starting with it. This allows me to be aligned with the timeline, and to have the final design and test the final loggers by May (see timeline).

It was really important for me to be able to test the logger on a free-flying bird. That is because, I wanted to estimate the impact on the satellites' signal of the body movements of the bird. For example, the flapping of the wings may obstruct of the signal coming from the satellites and therefore lower the quality of the data.

As the loggers are quite expensive, it is wise to test this before the final design, to take into account possible problems.

To test the loggers, I went to Germany and tested them on falcons. Falcons helped me a lot, because these birds are trained to fly around and then come back to their owner, which is quite convinient to retrieve the loggers. Moreover, the birds that I used for the tests, were already used to fly with backpacks, therefore they were not disturbed nor stressed by my tests.

The testing phase of these firsts prototypes will go on a bit more. I am planning to go around with them in the city to see how they react to very disturbed enviroments (very disturbed in this case means lots of houses/trees that interfere with the signal).

I still have not a complete outcome of the tests, but please, if you are interested in knowing a bit more, do not hesitate to contact me or comment the post :)

Thank you for the attention!