Improving Flight Stability of Remote Biologging Tag-Deployment Systems

Abstract

Researchers use biologging tags to study the behaviour and biomechanics of whales and investigate how human interactions disturb whales' natural behavior. Safely and efficiently placing the tags onto free swimming whales can be difficult. Dropping the tags from aerial drones is promising, but unstable dynamics during free-fall can result in tag orientations at impact that negatively affect the quality of the tag attachment. Our objective is to improve attachment reliability by reducing oscillatory movement of the tag system during the drop.