A Comparative Study Of Infrasound Based And Image Based Wireless Sensor Networks For Human Elephant Conflict Mitigation.

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks have been widely used in scientific studies to investigate phenomenon and acquire data from otherwise hostile environments that span over large geographical areas. Elephants have been discovered to produce infrasound: - sound that humans cannot hear, that they use to communicate within the herd. Due to changes in the world today, animals have been observed to move out of their natural habitats and into human settlements in search for food while humans have also encroached into the animals’ natural habitat. Due to this, cases of Human Elephant conflict are on the rise and need to be addressed. Although many technologies have been implemented to address this issue they have been reported to be inefficient for early alerting. Two technologies; image based and infrasound based have been proposed as candidates an application of Wireless Sensor Networks. This research compared the effectiveness and efficiency of an Infrasound Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and an Image processing based WSN for Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) mitigation by using a Multi Agent Simulation. This exploration was done by developing models for each of the technologies; Infrasound based WSN and Image processing based WSN and comparing their outputs after simulating them on a computer under the same variables. Results were collected from the Simulations as graphs which were then exported to spreadsheets for differentiating comparative analysis. Based on the results we concluded that Infrasound based WSN for HEC is a superior technology to an Image processing based WSN for HEC. We recommend an efficiency Matrix based on the area to be covered and the detection efficiency of the sensor before any WSN is deployed while deciding on which option to implement. The research borrows from and extends existing applications of wireless sensor networks and their designs, detection and alert systems and sound engineering. Key Words: Infrasound, Wireless Sensor Network, Human Elephant Conflict.