The MAMMARK Project


The MAMMARK is a low-cost marine marking tag for recording environmental data on diving pinnipeds and storing that data to a non-volatile storage for later recovery.


Current understanding of the behavior of marine mammals (or pinnipeds) is quite limited by the observation technology used. Surface tracking using geolocation and Service Argos tags have shown that these mammals range much farther than previously thought. Relatively simple time/depth recorders (TDR’s) have shown that they dive to depths of over 1000 meters deep and for durations of over one hour. In order to further the understanding of these aquatic creatures, a smaller and more capable tag was developed that can be deployed for longer durations and with more sensing capabilities. The tag, called the MAMMARK, which measures approximately 2.5 x 4 cm., has a low-power microprocessor, and a set of sensors that can be multiplexed through a high resolution analog-to-digital converter. The sensing suite consists of temperature, depth, speed, salinity, three axes of magnetic field, three axes of acceleration, and GPS. GPS measurements are, of course, only available at the surface, however, the GPS receiver is kept in a hot-start mode such that it can reacquire the satellite signals in less than 10 seconds after returning to the surface. The three-axis magnetometer and three-axis accelerometer are used to construct the attitude of the creature (or three-dimensional orientation). Integrating this attitude with water speed, and an initial estimate of position from GPS, a full underwater trajectory can be reconstructed (using error correction from the return surface position and depth measurement to improve the accuracy and estimate the ocean currents). The tag is equipped with an RF beeper for ease of recovery, and dumps its data to a high capacity external flash card. As currently configured, it can withstand extreme pressures and record data for up to one year.


This is a collaborative project with the Institute for Marine Sciences at UCSC.




multimedia


  1. • photos and images



Publications


  1. (1)Vasconcelos, J., Elkaim, G., Silvestre, C., Oliveira, P., Cardeira, B., “Geometric Approach to Strapdown Magnetometer Calibration in Sensor Frame,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace Electronic Systems, Vol. 47, No. 2, April 2011, pp. 1293-1306, doi:10.1109/TAES.2011.5751259. (pdf)

  2. (2)Elkaim, G., “Misalignment Calibration Using Body Frame Measurements” American Control Conference, ACC13, Washington D.C., 17-19 June 2013, submitted (pdf)

  3. (3)Elkaim, G. H., Foster, C., “Extension of a Non-Linear, Two-Step Calibration Methodology to Include Non-Orthogonal Sensor Axes,” IEEE Journal of Aerospace Electronic Systems, Vol. 44, No. 3, July 2008. (pdf)

  4. (4)Gebre-Egziabher, D., Elkaim, G. H., “MAV Attitude Determination from Observations of Earth's Magnetic and Gravity Field Vectors,” IEEE Journal of Aerospace Electronic Systems, Vol. 44, No. 3. July 2008. (pdf)

  5. (5)Elkaim, G. Decker, E., Oliver, G., Wright, B., “Initial Results from an In-Situ Environmental Monitoring Marine Mammal Tag,” ION/IEEE Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium, ION/IEEE PLANS 2008, Monterey, CA, May 5-8, 2008, pp. 560-567 (pdf)

  6. (6)Elkaim, G. Decker, E., Oliver, G., Wright, B., “Go Deep: Marine Mammal Marker for at-Sea Monitoring,” GPS World, Vol. 18, No. 8, Aug. 2006 [not peer-reviewed] (pdf)

  7. (7)Gebre-Egziabher, D., Elkaim, G. H., “Calibration of Strapdown Magnetometers in the Magnetic Field Domain,” ASCE Journal of Aerospace Engineering. Vol. 19. No. 2, April 2006, pp. 1-16 (pdf)

  8. (8)Elkaim, G. Decker, E., Oliver, G., Wright, B., “Marine Mammal Marker (MAMMARK) Dead Reckoning Sensor for In-Situ Environmental Monitoring,” Proceedings of the ION/IEEE Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium, ION/IEEE PLANS 2006, San Diego, CA, Apr. 25-27, 2006 (pdf)

  9. (9)Elkaim, G. H., Decker, E., Oliver, G., and Wright, B., “Development of a Marine Mammal Marker (MAMMARK) for In-Situ Environmental Monitoring,” Institute of Navigation National Technical Meeting, ION NTM 2006, Monterey, CA, January 18-20, 2006 (pdf)

  10. (10)D. Gebre-Egziabher, G. Elkaim, J.D. Powell, B. Parkinson, “A Non-Linear, Two-Step Estimation Algorithm for Calibrating Solid-State Strapdown Magnetometers,” 8th International St. Petersburg Conference on Navigation Systems (IEEE/AIAA), St. Petersburg, Russia, May 27-May 31, 2001 (pdf)

  11. (11)D. Gebre-Egziabher, G. Elkaim, J.D. Powell, B. Parkinson, “A Gyro-Free Quaternion-Based Attitude Determination System Suitable for Implementation using Low-Cost Sensors,” IEEE Position Location and Navigations Symposium (IEEE PLANS), San Diego, 2000. pp. 185-192 (pdf)


People


  1. • Gabriel Elkaim, Associate Professor, Computer Engineering, UCSC, 831.459.3054

  2. • Guy Oliver, Research Associate, Institute for Marine Science, UCSC, 831.459.4115

  3. • Eric Decker, Ph.D. Student, Computer Engineering, UCSC, 831.459.2140

MAMMARK Project

description

multimedia

publications

PEOPLE