An ultra-small Bluetooth low energy (BLE) tag for tracking of Red Palm weevils (RPW), developed by IMPACT lab researcher’s Rana Muhammad Bilal and Zulma Reyes Lopez, under supervision of Prof. Atif Shamim, was presented at IEEE ICMAC 2021 conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Tag measures approximately half the size of a human finger nail, and is mounted on thorax of RPWs (cockroach sized pests of Date palms) for tracking.
The work entailed design of a miniature Antenna-on-package at Bluetooth frequency, design of an-ultra small circuit board with complete BLE system-on-chip (SoC), as well as multiple field experiments with the RPWs to validate that designed Tag is small and light weight enough to not effect any typical activity or behavior such as flying, matting etc. of RPWs. Our paper on this work was selected as the best paper and Prof. Atif Shamim and Rana Bilal received the award from President of Pakistan in a prestigious ceremony.
