DSAIL | Developing a Low-Cost Raspberry Pi-based Camera Trap for Wildlife Detection

Basic Introduction to the camera trap

Severe degradation of ecosystems has led to loss of biodiversity. There is a need to monitor and conserve the ecosystems. Data collection is crucial in studying trends in the ecosystems. Traditional methods of data collection are inefficient. Advancement in technology has seen development of tools that allow for:

Non-invasive data collection

Efficient data collection

Remote and continuous data collection

Camera traps and acoustic sensors are one of the most used ecosystems monitoring technologies.

A camera trap is a system designed to capture pictures / videos automatically. Camera traps are commonly used in wildlife research. A camera trap comprises a camera unit and a motion sensor. The motion sensor is used to trigger / activate the camera once it detect motion.

Commercial camera traps exist in the market. These camera traps have the following disadvantages:

They are expensive.

Less flexible / limited customisation.

Dependency on manufactures.

Developing camera traps locally may have the following advantages:

Cost effectiveness.

Easy customisation.

Adaptability.

Ownership and control

This tutorial will describe the DSAIL Camera Trap which is a low-cost Raspberry Pi based camera trap.

The DSAIL Camera Trap

The DSAIL Camera Trap is a low-cost Raspberry Pi based camera trap. It was developed to capture a predator that had invaded the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) Coffee Farm. The camera trap was then deployed at the DeKUT Wildlife Conservancy to capture a Tsavo Cat that had been spotted in the conservancy. More camera traps were then developed for wildlife image data collection.

Camera Trap

Parts of the DSAIL Camera Trap

The DSAIL Camera Trap comprises hardware and software. The Hardware comprises:

A Raspberry Pi,

A DSAIL Power Management Board,

A battery,

A Raspberry Pi camera,

A PIR motion sensor,

A solar panel,

An adapter box, and

A mounting rod.

The software is divided into:

Power management software,

Data collection software, and

Machine learning algorithm.

Hardware components of a Camera Trap

Parts of the DSAIL Camera Trap

1. The Raspberry Pi:

The Raspberry Pi is the central device of the camera trap. It is a single board computer. The Raspberry Pi was chosen because:

It has a high processing capabilities.
It can be interfaced with multiple peripheral devices (including a camera).
It is cheap.
It is readily available.
It is easily programmable.
It captures and stores the images on an SD card.

A Raspberry Pi placed next to a ruler to show its size.

2. DSAIL Power Management Board

The DSAIL Power Management Board is used to power the camera trap. Power is a very important factor in systems meant for off-grid deployment. The DSAIL Management Board enables:

Powering of the Raspberry Pi using a battery.
The Raspberry Pi to monitor the battery voltage.
The user to schedule the operating time of the camera trap (including multiple operating windows).
The Raspberry Pi to shutdown safely in case the battery is drained or at the end of an operating window.
The Raspberry to schedule wake up time before shutting down.
Waking up the system at the scheduled starting time of an operating window.

Parts of the DSAIL Power Management Board.

3. The Raspberry Pi camera

The Raspberry Pi camera is used to capture images and videos. A Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2 is used. It is an 8 megapixel camera.

A Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2.

4. Battery

A Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery is used to power the camera trap. The battery is formed by combining several 3.7 V, 6600 mAh LiPo batteries.

A LiPo battery.

5. PIR Motion Sensor

A PIR motion sensor is used to trigger the camera to capture a photo or a video once there is motion in the vicinity of the camera trap. The motion sensor uses the infrared emitted by a body to detect motion.

A PIR motion sensor.

6.The Adapter Box and Mounting Rod

The adapter is used to house the camera trap during deployment. A rod has been mounted on the adapter box and it is used to support the camera trap by driving it into the ground.