The Scout System

Overview of the Scout System Components

Scout is a geolocation buoy, website, and associated handset. The buoy is meant to be attached to the 'trailing line' of marine debris that is attached to a whale. The buoy has a removable telemetry unit that uses GPS for reporting latitude and longitude using the Iridium network.

The location (latitude, longitude), distance, and true bearing to Scout are available on a mobile app that in Scout's case is just a website optimized for smartphones. The mobile app requires a connection to the internet and you can find it at https://www.scoutbuoy.org

The time between messages sent by the Scout (the interval) can be changed to extend battery life as they interval and battery life are correlated.