What is the device 'Dragon egg' installed by dropping on the crater of the volcano?

It is important to observe volcanic activities daily in preparation for an eruption. However, considering the dangers of eruption, investigation activities can not but be limited. A terminal called " Dragon Eggs " has been developed so that such volcanic activities can be safely investigated from remote areas.

September: Dragon Eggs | News | University of Bristol
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2018/september/dragon-eggs-hatched.html

A research group at Bristol University in the United Kingdom develops a small volcano survey instrument "Dragon Eggs" with built-in sensors that can detect temperature, humidity, vibration, toxic gases, etc. Dragon Eggs is a compact and lightweight terminal that can be carried with a drone, and is an IoT terminal that transmits data on the state of volcanic activity to remote researchers.

You can check how to install Dragon Eggs by dragging to the crater of the volcano with the following movie.

Landing a "Dragon Egg" Sensor on an Active Volcano - YouTube


As you can see in the movie, Dragon Eggs has the feature that even volcanoes performing eruption activities can be safely installed using drone. Dragon Eggs wireless transmitter transmits data of volcanic activity via the satellite and can send the state of the volcano to researchers in remote areas.

Dragon Eggs is activated when it detects vibration that occurs with volcanic activity. In addition, Dragon Eggs can start with minute pulses generated by vibration as an energy source, and "zero power listening" technology without battery consumption during sleep is adopted. Therefore, it is possible to wait for several months until volcanic activity occurs and "eggs hatch". And it also has a sensitive sensitivity enough to activate even a minute pulse of 5 picojoules, "I succeeded in significantly widening the limit of the low power consumption monitoring device by sensor drive," said a physicist at the University of Bristol Dr. Yannick Babern is evaluating.

In the stage where Dragon Eggs succeeded in demonstrating the concept to the last, in the future it will be tested to install the actual volcano and monitor the volcanic activity, and practicality will be tried.