Presentation with Kevin Weng about our development and use of the Sharkduino animal data-logging tag platform for the study of sandbar sharks in the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Eastern Shore.

1. Sharkduino
Kevin Weng (Fisheries)
Wouter Deconinck (Physics)
VIMS Industry Partnership Meeting
2017-08-25

2. Outline
● Accelerometry in biology
● How our project came to be
● W&M MakerSpace + VIMS field and lab assets
● Development of the tag
● Testing on live animals

3. Why do we want to use acceleration for biology?
1. Position-only tracking tells us where they are, but not what they are doing
2. Humans measure their environment by looking around
Light penetration in the oceans is very limited
Cannot measure nocturnal behaviors

4. Position only tracking: An example

6. Position only
tracking
An example

13. Position-only tracking
Home range scale quantified
Important habitats identified
But what are they doing in those important habitats?

14. Light penetration in the ocean
Traditional biology uses direct observation to record detailed animal behavior,
uses for specific habitats
Doesn’t work well in the ocean

15. 10m depth

16. 20m depth

17. 30m depth

18. 50m depth

19. 100m depth

20. Acceleration can show us detailed behaviors
without light

21. Accelerometers: an example

22. Where do they hunt, where do they rest?

23. Overall
Dynamic
Body
Acceleration
Hunt in cooler
waters
Rest in warmer
waters
(digestion?)

24. So how much does this cost?

25. Commercial accelerometer tags
Vemco V9AP:
$800
No memory
Receiver only
Wildlife Computers Daily
Diary: ~$5000 each
1 GB memory
CEFAS G6: $1000 each
56 MB memory

26. Commercial tags: custom
Custom tag
packages
$12,000
http://www.himb.hawaii.edu/ReefPredator/Accelerometer.html

27. Developing an affordable accelerometer on a
flexible, modifiable platform: SharkDuino
W&M undergrads: William Laney, Ben Powell, Dara
Kharabi, Ben Schenk
Shark collection: Stuart Jones, Eric Alpert, Dan Crear

28. History of the Project
● Started in 2015 in the Small Hall Makerspace
● Collaboration between VIMS Fisheries and W&M Physics
● Kevin read about the MakerSpace in the W&M Digest
Went to see it, met Wouter, the wheels started turning
● Undergraduate students from physics, computer science
● Graduate students from VIMS (mainly animal care)
● Helpful advisory connections with NASA (electronics), W&M computer
science (data analysis)

29. Small Hall Makerspace
Creative/technical space in Small Hall on main campus (physics building)
● Formed in Fall 2013 for interdisciplinary team-based projects
● “We provide the tools, students bring their creativity”
Encourage failure as fundamental to innovation
● Instill “fail early, fail often” attitude
● No cost to failure (whether financial or to GPA) in makerspace projects
Value prototyping process over the solution itself
● Students have strong theoretical basis but weaker practical experience
● Students are used to getting to “right” answer on straightforward path
● Laboratory exercises (even if self-guided and not recipe-driven) still often
follow a predictable path towards a single solution

30. Small Hall Makerspace
Electronics and computation workshop:
● Raspberry Pis, Intel Edison, Arduinos and many shields, Oculus Rift headsets
● Server rack (old computational physics nodes)
Rapid prototyping shop:
● 3D printers, laser cutters, vacuum thermoformer
● Actobotics and 80/20 mechanical erector set
Student machine shop:
● Drill press, milling machines, lathes
● 3 axis 2” × 3” CNC
Recent additions:
● Stratasys Objet 3D printer
● Kern metal-capable laser cutter

31. Small Hall Makerspace

32. Small Hall Makerspace

33. Technical Capabilities of Sharkduino
Components:
● Accelerometer: MMA8451QT
● Gyroscope: FXAS21002
● Real-Time Clock: DS1339B
● SD card storage
Design considerations:
● Low power consumption (7 days running time at 20 Hz sample rate)
● Openness and reusability of components and code
● Ease of adoption by novices in electronics design

34. Sharkduino: Original Rectangular Design

35. Sharkduino: Trapezoidal Design

37. What do the data look like?

41. Testing SharkDuino on live animals
Sharks at Small Hall?!?!?

42. VIMS facilities for live animal research
Eastern Shore Lab
Gloucester Point campus
Vessel fleet
Live animal transport
State-of-the-art lab facilities
In collaboration with the VIMS Center for
Coastal Resources Management (CCRM)

47. Putting the SharkDuino on a shark

48. W&M Tribe
video
https://youtu.be/HFcoQLm33TM

53. Plans for the Future
Immediate future
● In-the-wild recovery mechanism testing
● Moving towards streamlined production (larger batches of sensors, bringing
costs per sensor down, larger deployments)
Medium term
● Depth hardening on CTD casts
● Inclusion of dissolved O2 sensors, proxies for nutrient concentration

54. Plans for the Future
Long term
● Develop this into platform for marine research beyond studying the animal:
use the animal as a vehicle that brings the sensors into regions of interest
○ Collection of large data sets of randomly/importance-sampled data
○ Provide researchers with tools and agency to develop their own sensor boards on an existing
read-out and analysis stack
○ Provide commercial users with developed solutions for nutrient concentration monitoring

55. Plans for the Future
Opportunities for cooperation and development
● Big data in marine research
○ Machine learning of collected accelerometer/gyroscope data
○ Behavioral classification, feature detection
○ Relevant connections: non-marine animal behavior
● Passive, low-power, underwater position determination
○ Model-based dead-reckoning with constraints
○ Onboard “soundscape” measurements, bay-level mapping and modeling
○ “Underwater GPS” based on acoustic beacons and passive timing sensors
○ Relevant connections: ROV navigation