One of the most dramatic changes occurring on our planet is the ever-increasing extensive use of artificial light at night, which drastically altered the environment to which nocturnal animals are adapted. Such light pollution has been identified as a driver in the dramatic insect decline of the past years. One nocturnal species group experiencing marked declines are moths, which play a key role in food webs and ecosystem services such as plant pollination. Moths can be easily monitored within the illuminated area of a streetlight, where they typically exhibit disoriented behavior. Yet, little is known about their behavior beyond the illuminated area. Harmonic radar tracking enabled us to close this knowledge gap. We found a significant change in flight behavior beyond the illuminated area of a streetlight. A detailed analysis of the recorded trajectories revealed a barrier effect of streetlights on lappet moths whenever the moon was not available as a natural celestial cue. Furthermore, streetlights increased the tortuosity of flights for both hawk moths and lappet moths. Surprisingly, we had to reject our fundamental hypothesis that most individuals would fly toward a streetlight. Instead, this was true for only 4% of the tested individuals, indicating that the impact of light pollution might be more severe than assumed to date. Our results provide experimental evidence for the fragmentation of landscapes by streetlights and demonstrate that light pollution affects movement patterns of moths beyond what was previously assumed, potentially affecting their reproductive success and hampering a vital ecosystem service.

SummaryOne of the most dramatic changes occurring on our planet in recent decades is the ever-increasing extensive use of artificial light at night, which drastically altered the environment nocturnal animals are adapted to 1,2. One nocturnal species group experiencing marked declines are moths, which are not only of great importance for species conservation, but also for their key role in food webs and in ecosystem services such as nocturnal plant pollination 3,4. Light pollution has been identified as a driver in the dramatic insect decline of the past years 5–7, yet little is known about its impact on natural insect orientation behaviour. Using harmonic radar tracking, we show that the orientation of several species of moths is significantly affected by streetlights, although only 4 % of individuals showed flight-to-light behaviour. We reveal a species-specific barrier effect of streetlights on lappet moths whenever the moon was not available as a natural celestial cue. Furthermore, streetlights increased the tortuosity of flight trajectories for both hawk moths and lappet moths. Our results provide the first spatially resolved experimental evidence for the fragmentation of landscapes by streetlights and demonstrate that light pollution affects movement patterns of moths beyond previously assumed extend, potentially affecting their reproductive success and hampering a vital ecosystem service.

Background Sixty percent of all species are insects, yet despite global efforts to monitor animal movement patterns, insects are continuously underrepresented. This striking difference between species richness and the number of species monitored is not due to a lack of interest but rather to the lack of technical solutions. Often the accuracy and speed of established tracking methods is not high enough to record behavior and react to it experimentally in real-time, which applies in particular to small flying animals. Results Our new method of real-time tracking relates to frequencies of solar radiation which are almost completely absorbed by traveling through the atmosphere. For tracking, photoluminescent tags with a peak emission (1400 nm), which lays in such a region of strong absorption through the atmosphere, were attached to the animals. The photoluminescent properties of passivated lead sulphide quantum dots were responsible for the emission of light by the tags and provide a superb signal-to noise ratio. We developed prototype markers with a weight of 12.5 mg and a diameter of 5 mm. Furthermore, we developed a short wave infrared detection system which can record and determine the position of an animal in a heterogeneous environment with a delay smaller than 10 ms. With this method we were able to track tagged bumblebees as well as hawk moths in a flight arena that was placed outside on a natural meadow. Conclusion Our new method eliminates the necessity of a constant or predictable environment for many experimental setups. Furthermore, we postulate that the developed matrix-detector mounted to a multicopter will enable tracking of small flying insects, over medium range distances (>1000m) in the near future because: a) the matrix-detector equipped with an 70 mm interchangeable lens weighs less than 380 g, b) it evaluates the position of an animal in real-time and c) it can directly control and communicate with electronic devices.

A new innovative satellite mission, the Innovative CubeSat for Education (InnoCube), is addressed. The goal of the mission is to demonstrate “the wireless satellite”, which replaces the data harness by robust, high-speed, real-time, very short-range radio communications using the SKITH (SKIpTheHarness) technology. This will make InnoCube the first wireless satellite in history. Another technology demonstration is an experimental energy-storing satellite structure that was developed in the previous Wall#E project and might replace conventional battery technology in the future. As a further payload, the hardware for the concept of a software-based solution for receiving signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) will be developed to enable precise position determination of the CubeSat. Aside from technical goals this work aims to be of use in the teaching of engineering skills and practical sustainable education of students, important technical and scientific publications, and the increase of university skills. This article gives an overview of the overall design of the InnoCube.

A novel concept for ad-hoc landing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in GNSS-denied environment is presented in this paper. In our concept at the beginning of the landing phase the UAV drops several active beacons down to the landing site. It enables the UAV to localize itself via distance and angle information to the deployed beacons. The presented wireless local positioning system is based on 24 GHz secondary radar sensors and allows for accurate and robust 3D-positioning even in harsh weather conditions. The specially designed antennas with large angular coverage assure UAV localization disregarding the beacon's position and orientation. The developed beacon design has small size, low weight and power consumption that perfectly suits the application goal. Measurements of localization and landing scenario using four beacons and the radar unit installed on the drone are shown. The 3D-positioning of the UAV with the RMSE under 36 cm using only a single beacon and 31 cm using four beacons were achieved. These results verify the application of the proposed system as an accurate and redundant UAV landing solution.

This paper proposes a 3-D local pose estimation system for a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a weight limit of 200 g and a very small footprint of 10 cm×10cm. The system is realized by fusing 3-D position estimations from an Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) transceiver network with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor data and data from a barometric pressure sensor. The 3-D position from the UWB network is estimated using Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) and range measurements between the transceivers. The range measurements are obtained using Double-Sided Two-Way Ranging (DS-TWR), thus eliminating the need for an additional clock synchronization mechanism. The sensor fusion is accomplished using a loosely coupled Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) architecture. Extensive evaluation of the proposed system shows that a position accuracy with a Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) of 0.20cm can be obtained. The orientation angle can be estimated with an RMSE of 1.93°.

The DLR Space Agency studies how to explore the Valles Marineris on planet Mars. The interest in this area arises since the area is poorly investigated. This is due to the harsh topology in this region with deep canyons and high mountains, making it even more interesting for scientist. The mission concept foresees the use of a swarm of multiple UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) that will be brought in a lander. All swarm members act in a cooperative way, i.e. some members explore the terrain and telling other members, where an interesting feature can be found. Very important subsystems of this mission are the location determination system and the communication system, which are subject of VaMEx-LAOLa, a project funded by the DLRagency (FKZ: 50NA1527). The position determination is realized in two steps. The relative position between all members will be determined ad-hoc from exploration start using radio waves. The global position and orientation is analyzed in a later mission phase by use of a star camera. The communication system will establish a data link between all swarm members. Within this paper, the technical implementation and status of LAOLa is presented.

A power distribution unit (PDU) is an electronic module which provides electrical power to the network of electronic devices. For modern distributed computing networks a smart PDU is required which does not only supply the power to all the attached units but also monitors current consumption and the load on each node. In this paper we presented the Hardware and Software module for an intelligent PDU which offers the capabilities to distribute the power and also supervise the current and load consumption and broadcast all it parameters to the administrator. This PDU is based on a state-of-the-art ARMCortex M4 microcontroller which is used under a Real time operating System. A real case scenario is presented at the end of this paper validating the hardware and software design of proposed PDU.