Source : Mouser Electronics
In the summer of 2023, Edwin Towler was in Iceland’s Westfjords, midway through an Atlantic puffin research expedition. While observing a puffin colony on Grímsey, a small island in Steingrímsfjörður, near Drangsnes, he encountered researchers from the UK-based charity Whale Wise. The charity promotes sustainable ocean use, focusing on protecting marine mammals and understanding the complex interactions between whales and human activity. Hearing about their innovative use of customized drones for scientific research, Towler saw the potential for thoughtful design to support their mission.
Fishing gear entanglement is a major threat to humpback whales. Lines and nets, whether actively used or abandoned, can entrap whales, restricting movement and preventing essential activities like feeding. This often leads to death by drowning or starvation. Survivors endure prolonged suffering, sometimes remaining entangled for years, with scars serving as stark reminders of their ordeal.
However, much about entanglement remains unclear. Current estimates, based on photos of scars taken from boats, reveal only a small portion of the whale’s body, likely underestimating the true scale of the issue. The population-wide impact and long-term effects on the health and fitness of surviving whales are still not well understood.
In this article, Towler and Sam Rogers, co-founders of Tandem Ventures, present their experience working with Jess Ward from Whale Wise to streamline the project’s essential research gear and extend drone flight times. The final design, compatible with any drone, provides a cost-effective and sustainable solution for Whale Wise and cetacean researchers worldwide.
Devising the Project
After returning to the UK from Iceland, we arranged a meeting with Jess from Whale Wise. The charity conducts humpback whale research in Iceland during the summer months, and Jess was back home in London for the winter.
We learned from Jess about the organization’s latest scientific endeavor: collecting aerial images of humpback whales in the Icelandic Westfjords to assess their scars from above and determine the longer-term impacts of entanglement on whale health. Essentially, what happens to whales that survive being entangled in fishing gear?
The researchers can accurately measure aspects of the whales to assess their body condition. However, measuring a swimming whale is not straightforward. Whale Wise uses a drone combined with a special piece of light detection and ranging (lidar) equipment (Figure 1). The drone is used to take photos of the whales as they are at the surface of the water. The lidar unit acts as a rangefinder and provides a highly accurate altitude reading by emitting an infrared light signal and measuring the time it takes for it to reflect. These calculated data are then written to an SD card. Researchers can make highly accurate measurements by combining the image and lens specifications with the altitude reading.
Figure 1: Whale Wise’s original lidar-equipped drone. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Inspecting the Current Equipment
Everything sounded splendid in theory, so we organized a day with Jess and her current suite of tools. We found a suitable body of water in Oxfordshire and used a paddleboard as a whale simulator. Jess then gave us a hands-on run-through of the entire whale-measuring process.
The Whale Wise team uses an unmodified DJI Mavic 3 Classic drone with a long-range, high-accuracy lidar unit attached to its exterior.
It was immediately evident that any problems with the system were embedded in the tools. Jess has a wealth of whale knowledge and was highly competent and knowledgeable in using the gear, despite its drawbacks. The mere existence of the equipment is a worthy achievement: It has already helped gather critical data that would otherwise not have been possible. However, the system could certainly be optimized further.
The first thing we noticed was how cumbersome the lidar was when attached to the drone. It protruded from the bottom of the drone, so a fall from any height or angle could severely damage the sensitive lenses or the sensor. This also meant that the entire thing had to be carefully hand-launched and caught from the air—a maneuver requiring the researcher to wear a hefty protective gauntlet.
All the wiring connecting the external battery, GPS, and primary lidar unit was exposed and perilously close to the drone’s propellers. If the wiring were to meet a propeller, both the lidar equipment and the drone would plunge into the water.
Additionally, the only way to infer whether the system was operating correctly was to decipher small, flashing LEDs on the GPS. Determining whether data was being successfully written, how much battery was left, or if the lidar was range-finding correctly was nearly impossible.
Despite these unoptimized characteristics, the system did work. Jess was able to hover the drone-lidar combo over “Humpback Rogers” (i.e., Sam on the paddleboard; Figure 2). Once we caught the drone, we set about inspecting the data.
Figure 2: Rogers lies on a paddleboard to represent a whale in the water. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
The MicroSD card containing the CSV file of lidar data was accessible only by disassembling the entire casing of the lidar unit, which first required removing cable ties. Not only was this frustrating and time-consuming, but it exposed the printed circuit board (PCB) and internal wiring of the system to the elements. In an unfortunate situation, jolting the casing open could also propel the MicroSD card seaward and, with it, the data.
Once we had wrestled the MicroSD card from the casing, the data determined Sam’s height and the paddleboard’s length with amazing accuracy.
We appreciated that the team had developed the equipment to this point; whatever we designed next would stand on the shoulders of those giants. However, the open source nature of the design—i.e., how the equipment had been applied and adapted to each research team’s specific needs—resulted in a sub-optimal system, and it was this modularity that we hoped to solve.
Finding Opportunities for Improvement
By improving the equipment, we had the opportunity to help Whale Wise save time and stress, letting them focus on their critical research. We began with the lidar system.
We found a research paper from Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, titled LidarBoX: A 3D-Printed, Open-Source Altimeter System to Improve Photogrammetric Accuracy for Off-the-Shelf Drones.[1] Researchers on that team had developed a new and updated version of the equipment the Whale Wise team used, tackling issues such as SD card accessibility. However, the majority of our challenges remained unsolved. After chatting with the Oregon State team, we were excited to see how we could build on their work to date. They agreed to help us distribute our design to other cetacean research teams worldwide. We also learned that research groups were using lidar-and-drone systems in all kinds of environments, often launching from boats.
From our learnings with Jess, and that chat with the Oregon State team, we distilled the areas of improvement into three primary categories:
- Making the system faster, safer, and easier to use
- Ensuring better reliability around recording the data
- Making the system usable in a wider range of environments and situations
Developing the Electronics
We decided to address the design’s electronics first. The electronics in Jess’s design worked, but some components had been discontinued, and newer ones were available. Mouser Electronics supplied all the circuitry components needed for this redesign. We breadboarded the first iteration to test our upgraded components—most importantly, a smaller, lighter lidar sensor.
The final design needed to be open source, so we wanted it to be compact and easy to assemble from off-the-shelf components. To achieve this, we started designing custom PCBs to connect the various devices.
This equipment would be aboard a flying drone, so every gram we saved would extend the flight time. We experimented with all sorts of weight-saving methods, including cutouts and special, extra-thin boards.
We also wanted to simplify the charging process with an integrated battery charged over USB, rather than carrying a separate charger and attaching the battery externally as the researchers currently operate.
With every iteration, the system got smaller and lighter, extending the flight time for the researchers.
Creating a Product
After deciding the direction of the main electronics design, we started to examine the project’s physical characteristics. We determined that the product should fit within a 40 × 40 × 140mm shape and be easy to deploy and catch—especially for researchers working on boats. We each designed a concept, 3D-printed it, and met with our business advisor, Raj, to test how intuitive our designs were to non-technical users.
Ed’s concept focused on a two-part design optimized for quick deployment and packing. He strapped a small tray piece to the drone (in a manner that allowed us to fold the drone for packing) and securely clipped the main 40mm × 40mm × 140mm piece into the tray. He added a bolt-on handle to allow users to deploy and catch the drone by hand (Figure 3). Ed designed the concept so users wearing mittens—such as researchers in Iceland—could still operate it.
Figure 3: Towler’s horizontal prototype with attached handle. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Raj found the clip mechanism intuitive, incredibly fast, and secure to assemble; however, the handle attachment was nowhere near sturdy enough, and Raj feared it would break.
Sam’s concept used the 40mm × 40mm × 140mm volume in a vertical form to act as both the electronics housing and the handle (Figure 4). Catching Sam’s design was remarkably easy, and the handle felt secure enough for Raj to wave the drone around vigorously without worry.
Figure 4: Rogers’s prototype, which integrates the electronics and lidar camera into a vertical handle. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
However, the added height of the permanent vertical handle made it difficult to facilitate any kind of ground launch and landing. To enable this option, Sam devised a stand that incorporated some small fins on the back to be compatible with off-the-shelf action-camera handles (Figure 5). This allowed users to launch the system either from the ground or by attaching a camera handle, which researchers operating from boats may prefer.
Figure 5: Rogers’s prototype placed in the finned launching stand. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
With the insights from this testing, we combined the best elements of both concepts into a singular design ready to be tested in the field (Figure 6).
Figure 6: The final prototype, opened to show the electronics. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Deploying the Prototype
We headed to the Westfjords of Iceland to reveal our first fully functional prototype to Jess and the rest of the Whale Wise team. Although not a final design, this creation embodied all our learnings to date.
After driving across Iceland’s unique, breathtaking landscape, we spotted Whale Wise’s iconic sun-yellow van parked by a high viewpoint on the coast of a large fjord. Jess briefly ran us through their current equipment, highlighting the delicacy of the lidar unit. One of their two units had broken and was out of action.
While the rest of the team continued to look for whales in the fjord, we fetched the bright yellow hard case that contained our prototype (Figure 7), which we presented to a very excited Jess.
Figure 7: Rogers and Towler present the new prototype. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
The sky-blue prototype had fin-shaped landing feet to allow the system to be launched and landed on the ground. It had an upgraded version of Ed’s original clip design, combined with a much sturdier method of attaching an action-camera handle, inspired by Sam’s original concept, for circumstances where ground landings are not possible.
To make it easy to charge, we integrated an internal battery with a standard USB-C charging port. A small OLED screen on the device’s flank gave an “All systems go!” indication, displaying the battery level, a live readout from the lidar unit, the SD card status, and the satellite-lock status of the GPS. Each indication was communicated through iconography to avoid potential language barriers to non-English-reading researchers. The screen automatically entered a sleep mode after a period of inactivity to conserve battery power, displaying a small whale icon to indicate that the system was still live. Users could wake the screen by pressing a small momentary switch next to it.
The new, smaller, lighter lidar component was inset within the housing to protect it from being scratched upon landing. The main latching on/off switch also allowed the researchers to create new CSV files (of lidar data) each time the unit was powered on and off.
We let Jess pilot a test flight of the prototype, flying it 1.5km out over the fjord, doing both ground launches and landings, and testing the attachable handle—all to great success. However, this was all performative in lieu of any actual whales showing up.
We decided to drive around some of the other major fjords in the area, and in the dying light of the day, we finally spotted the plumes of humpback blows, backlit by the setting sun. With no time to spare, we fired up the drone and Jess took the reins, propelling our prototype out over the three swimming behemoths.
The drone’s live camera feed, visible on Jess’s controller, was a glorious sight: Three humpback whales peacefully gliding just below the water’s surface, occasionally breaking the surface to erupt a glorious blow.
Having positioned the drone above the cetaceans, careful to remain high enough to avoid disturbing them, Jess returned the drone to base. Throughout the endeavor, the prototype remained attached, proving the clip mechanism’s efficacy.
We retreated to Whale Wise’s cozy coastal base—a characterful building in Drangsnes with panoramic whale-spotting views overlooking the neighboring fjord—to check the data we had collected.
Jess displayed a magnificent image of a whale from the drone’s camera (Figure 8) and a less magnificent but nonetheless impressive spreadsheet of the lidar’s data. After plugging the data into specialized software called Morphometrics, Jess revealed the whale to be 10.24m long. Luckily, Whale Wise was already aware of this whale, and our data matched existing data of the same animal.
Figure 8: One of the three humpback whales captured by the drone camera. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Creating the Final Design
Thrilled that the prototype worked, we began optimizing the design. We redesigned the entire thing to be about one-third smaller and much lighter. We also removed significant amounts of material from the component that straps to the drone, making the device’s total mass even lighter than the original LidarBoX.
The clip mechanism allows the main device to remain unchanged as drone technology advances, while the tray component, which attaches to the drone, can be easily updated to integrate with newer models.
For the prototype and final design, we used specialized fasteners, including lightweight, self-tapping screws, to eliminate the need for embedded nuts. These helped reduce the overall weight and simplify the assembly process. We also replaced the heavy stainless steel bolt used to secure the handle mechanism with a lighter polyether ether ketone (PEEK) bolt.
We relocated the MicroSD card slot and USB-C charge port behind a rubber bung to protect the exposed ports from the elements. Both the rubber (TPU) bung and main P12 nylon plastic casing are standard materials printable by industrial 3D printers, and the standard electronics inside the device are easy to source. These factors make the design easily repeatable and manufacturable around the world.
Finally, we made the entire design’s casing in the form of a whale (Figure 9)—because why not?
Figure 9: The final constructed design. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Final Thoughts
At its core, this project was not about building a better tool; it was about enabling people like Jess and her team to focus on what they do best: protecting our planet’s awe-inspiring creatures. By addressing inefficiencies and frustrations in the existing tools, we hope to give organizations like Whale Wise more time to ask meaningful questions, collect vital data, and drive actionable change in conservation.
We will continue to refine and optimize the system, which we have named WHASER (Figure 10), based on feedback from the research teams. It will soon be made available to the 40+ research organizations worldwide that monitor cetaceans with lidar equipment.
Figure 10: The WHASER system attached to the drone in flight. (Source: Tandem Ventures)
Projects like this remind us that we all have a role to play as stewards of our planet, whether as engineers, researchers, storytellers, or supporters. As we pack up our tools, ready to move on to the next challenge, we hope we leave Whale Wise equipped with something better than they had before—a small step forward in the wonderful and important work they do.
To learn more, visit www.mouser.com
