News
FEATURE
RASPBERRY PI RIDES A WHALE The award-winning Raspiwhale project features a Pi-powered tracking device attached to a whale. We chat to its designer, Daniel Pérez Martinez
A SEAFARING PI
Since the Raspiwhale is designed to be attached to a marine mammal, it features a waterproof case to protect the electronic components inside. As an extra precaution, the Raspberry Pi Model A+ itself has its connections sealed with a special resin. Two 3200mAh Li-Po batteries power the Pi and an XBee radio transmitter. The watertight container is attached to a base with three suction cups for mounting on the whale’s back. At the end of a session, the suction cups are vented to release the device, which floats to the surface to be recovered by the team.
A long carbon-fibre pole is used to place the RW1 on the back of a whale
28
March 2016
re there any places left to which the Raspberry Pi is yet to venture? Even the sky is no limit, with two Astro Pis having rocketed to the International Space Station. Back on planet Earth, the Pi is exploring new depths as it dives towards the seabed of the South Atlantic… mounted on the back of a whale!
A
As well as being one of the most extraordinary Pi projects we’ve encountered, Raspiwhale (magpi.cc/1O1ozSs) has a serious scientific purpose: to research the behaviour of southern right whales (Eubaleana australis) around Península Valdés, Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The Raspberry Pi is a recent addition to this long-running research project. “Around ten years ago, I was the leader of the research team to explore reactions of whales to vessels at harbours and bays,”
explains Raspiwhale creator Daniel Pérez Martinez. “I needed a device that would allow me to measure the behaviour of the whale, and knew that they were developing instruments of this kind in the United States. The problem was that they were in the experimental stage or were very expensive - over $20,000.” This led the team to think about creating their own devices. Since the Raspberry Pi hadn’t yet been launched, the first attempt involved a Gumstix board, without success; this was followed by the use of simple data loggers. When the research project was continued as a doctoral thesis of Belen Arguelles – at the laboratory of applied ecophysiology of CENPAT-CONICET directed by Dr Marcelo Bertellotti – Daniel offered to develop a new device. “Exactly a year ago I discovered the Raspberry Pi world,” he tells us, “and I turned fully to developing ideas. Of course, Raspiwhale was the priority.”
A watertight solution
The Raspiwhale 1 (RW1) unit comprises two main parts: a base equipped with suction cups to stick to a whale, with a float to enable subsequent recovery from the sea, and a watertight container to house all the electronic components. The latter includes a Raspberry Pi Model A+, two LiPo batteries, sensors, XBee transmitter, hydrophone, and HD camera. The RW1 took Daniel six months to research and develop. Fortunately, he had a head start since the team already had six years’ experience of using a similar sealed raspberrypi.org/magpi