Optimizing trilateration estimates for tracking fine‐scale movement of wildlife using automated radio telemetry networks

Paxton, Kristina L.; Baker, Kayla M.; Crytser, Zia B.; Guinto, Ray Mark P.; Brinck, Kevin W.; Rogers, Haldre S.; Paxton, Eben H.

doi:10.1002/ece3.8561

Cited by 11 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Overall, the median error was similar between multilateration (28 m, if detected by the Radio fingerprinting for wildlife tracking 13 nearest receiver) and fingerprinting (30 m). For multilateration, the error we observed in our field tests is similar to the lower values reported by Paxton et al (2022) which simulated a receiver grid with 100 m spacing and evaluated the effect of different filtering methods for multilateration localization. This suggests that the error we observed using multilateration in this field study is close to the minimum feasible given the receiver configuration we tested.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Fingerprint localisation for fine-scale wildlife tracking using automated radio telemetry

Tyson,

Fragueira,

Sansano-Sansano

et al. 2024

Preprint

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1: Automated radio telemetry systems are among the most widely applicable method for tracking wildlife at fine spatiotemporal scales. These systems are increasingly applying large networks of simple receivers to detect radio signal strength (RSS) from radio tagged individuals. Analytical methods to derive position estimates using RSS localisation, however, are relatively underdeveloped in the field of wildlife tracking. Here, we apply approaches from indoor positioning systems to develop a new method, radio fingerprinting, for localizing radio tagged animals in structurally complex, outdoor environments. This method characterizes the RSS patterns at known locations to generate a radio map of the study area, which is then used to predict the location of new RSS patterns. 2: We conducted field tests to evaluate the localisation accuracy of radio fingerprinting relative to multilateration, a commonly used method for RSS localisation. To do so, we established an experimental receiver network covering multiple habitat types and compared the localisation accuracy of radio fingerprinting to multilateration. Additionally, we evaluated how a variety of features characteristic of typical tracking datasets affected the accuracy of both methods. 3: While both methods had a similar median error (~30 m), the fingerprint localisation method offered several advantages over multilateration. Multilateration localisation estimates were highly affected by missed detections from the nearest receiver to the test point, which occurred in 30% of cases. In these cases, the median error was 97 m, over a 3-fold increase. Distance to the nearest receiver also biased multilateration estimates with error increasing as the distance increased. Additionally, errors from multilateration estimates were higher in more densely vegetated areas. In contrast, fingerprinting position estimates were largely robust to each of these scenarios. 4: Automated radio telemetry enables the fine-scale, continuous tracking of range-resident animals. We present radio fingerprinting as a localisation method in outdoor environments where standard localisation methods may be inadequate. This approach can be applied to any automated radio telemetry hardware and to any study system where a radio map can be generated.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Fingerprint localisation for fine-scale wildlife tracking using automated radio telemetry

Tyson,

Fragueira,

Sansano-Sansano

et al. 2024

Preprint

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show abstract

“…From the practitioner's perspective, this estimation accuracy can be considered acceptable for the wildlife monitoring with VHF radio‐tracking, which is the standard technique in wildlife monitoring (Mech & Barber, 2002). In the wildlife literature, the estimation accuracy in the VHF radio‐tracking changes up to 100 m depending on the hardware, localization method, and habitat (affecting signal attenuation; Colby, 2008; Desrochers et al, 2018; Paxton et al, 2022; Shafer et al, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle filter‐based aerial tracking for moving targets

Yılmaz

Bayram

2022

Journal of Field Robotics

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This paper considers the problem of tracking a moving target with a radio transmitter using an aerial robot in an online manner. The aerial robot is equipped with a low‐cost directional antenna and Software Defined Radio receiver to obtain the signal emitted by the target. The aerial robot rotates around itself and collects a predefined number of signal recordings from each direction to determine the bearing angle to the target in which the received signal strength is maximized. The measurement uncertainty is assumed to be bounded and represented by two triangular areas divided by a bisector. To localize and track the target, a particle filter‐based approach is proposed. In this approach, we integrate the discrete and bounded measurement model with the particle filter in such a way that the particles' weights are updated based on a novel method which considers the measurement wedge and the particle locations with respect to this wedge along with a logistic function. We also incorporate the doubling strategy into the particle filter to determine the next measurement locations and avoid arbitrarily large number of measurements. We choose wildlife monitoring as a use case scenario in which a radio transmitter is put on the animal under consideration to allow wildlife researchers to track it. Since each animal has its own motion behavior, we consider different motion models for the target, which are used in modeling animal movements in wildlife studies. Therefore, the proposed approach is validated using a target moving with varying velocity and acceleration. We verified the tracking performance of the approach through a series of extensive simulations. We compared the proposed approach with the optimal offline strategy in terms of the empirical competitive ratio of the total distance traveled and the tracking distance. We also developed a low‐cost hardware platform and software infrastructure for the proposed tracking system. Using this platform, we conducted field experiments for the stationary and moving targets.

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“…The modeling approach we describe here is well-suited for the high-resolution encounter data provided by our feeders and the observed first/last feeder visits closely corresponded with the estimated arrival/departure dates, suggesting that attracting birds to food resources reduced uncertainty in individual arrivals and departures. We note, however, that the modeling framework we present here can be applied to many other types of encounter data and may be particularly useful in instances where detection probability is lower than in our system, including automated telemetry systems (Taylor et al 2017, Paxton et al 2022) and even traditional band-resighting and recaptures (Roques et al 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevational differences in migration phenology of Lazuli Buntings do not support selection-based hypotheses for protandry

Savides,

Rushing

2023

Ornithology

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Documenting and understanding sex-specific variation in migratory phenology is important for predicting avian population dynamics. In spring, males often arrive on the breeding grounds before females (protandry), though whether these patterns result from fitness benefits versus sex-specific constraints on arrival timing remains poorly understood. Sex-specific variation in the timing of fall migration is less well-documented than in spring, in part because documenting fall departures is often limited by cryptic behaviors, lower vocalization rates, and shifting territory boundaries during this time of year. We used 2 years of high-resolution encounter data from radio-frequency identification (RFID)-equipped bird feeders to monitor the daily presence of male and female Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena) throughout the breeding season at a high and a low-elevation site in Cache County, Utah, USA. These encounter data were used to estimate daily arrival and departure probabilities and to investigate possible differences in migration timing in relation to sex and elevation. At low elevation, male arrival (n = 15) preceded female arrival (n = 16) by ~1 week, consistent with previous research that has documented protandry in other migratory songbirds. At high elevation, however, no significant differences were found between male (n = 19) and female arrival (n = 6). In fall, we found little difference in departure dates between elevation or sex, or between years. Our observations are most consistent with constraint-based hypotheses explaining protandry, possibly relating to sex-specific constraints operating during the nonbreeding period. We additionally emphasize the need for quantifying uncertainty in phenological estimates and importance of addressing potential differences across demographic groups.

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Optimizing trilateration estimates for tracking fine‐scale movement of wildlife using automated radio telemetry networks

Cited by 11 publications

References 51 publications

Fingerprint localisation for fine-scale wildlife tracking using automated radio telemetry

Fingerprint localisation for fine-scale wildlife tracking using automated radio telemetry

Particle filter‐based aerial tracking for moving targets

Elevational differences in migration phenology of Lazuli Buntings do not support selection-based hypotheses for protandry

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