{"ID":2874514,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03979","arxiv_id":"2509.03979","title":"A Low-Cost Open-Source BLE-Based Asian Hornet Tracking System","abstract":"The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) poses a serious threat to ecosystems and beekeeping. Locating nests is essential, but usually involves time-consuming manual triangulation. We present a low-cost, open-source tracking system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The system consists of a lightweight BLE tag and a software-defined radio (SDR) receiver implemented in GNU Radio. By bypassing the BLE stack, we embed a custom pseudo-noise (PN) sequence in the uncoded PHY for correlation-based detection. Using a Yagi antenna and PlutoSDR, the receiver performs digital beam sweeping to determine the tag's direction. Field tests show reliable angular resolution at 50m and a communication range up to 360m. While our modulation increases receiver complexity, it enables future improvements such as multichannel spreading and tag identification. The design is fully open-source and provides a scalable framework for hornet tracking and related applications in environmental monitoring.","short_abstract":"The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) poses a serious threat to ecosystems and beekeeping. Locating nests is essential, but usually involves time-consuming manual triangulation. We present a low-cost, open-source tracking system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The system consists of a lightweight BLE tag and a softwar...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03979","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.03979v1","authors":"[\"Gilles Callebaut\",\"Jan Van Moer\"]","published":"2025-09-04T08:07:28Z","proceeding":"eess.SP","tasks":"[\"eess.SP\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}