WHASER

A better tool to measure whales.

Designed and built by Tandem Ventures, in collaboration with the charity Whale Wise.

Enabled by our wonderful partners:

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We made a film about inventing WHASER.

Watch as we meet the heroes of whale conservation, and innovate towards a better tool to help them on their mission.

The product.

A modern, portable white and black ultrasonic cleaner device with digital display and control buttons.

WHASER is a range-finding tool that attaches to drones to provide accurate altitude data. By combining this with the drone’s images, objects (or whales) in view can be measured.

A drone with four propellers, a camera mounted underneath, and a blue and black landing gear.

Key features

Safe, easy to use design

‘All systems go!’ display

Optional grip for hand-launches

Drone agnostic (suited to DJI Mavic & ANZU)

Weatherproof

USB-C charging & data access

6 hour battery (3 hours to charge)

LiDAR sensor: Lightware SF20/C

Weight: 170g

WHASER is small and lightweight, to maximise the flight time of the drone.

Thin walls, compact electronics arrangement, and removing unnecessary material all help optimise the design.

A person holding a light blue silicone puzzle piece-shaped phone case with camera lenses visible inside the opening.
Close-up of a handheld electric glue gun with a blue body, black heating element, and a trigger, held by a person's hand on a wooden surface.

Optimised performance.

WHASER is optimised for distances of 0.2 to 100m, ideal for drone applications.

Refined geometry keeps sensitive lenses away from debris.

Built from the ground up.

A custom PCB houses all of the components in a compact manner, keeping the weight and amount of wiring to a minimum. The system is programmed into an ESP32 Nano microcontroller.

A person holding a light blue 3D-printed case with electronic components, including a Raspberry Pi and other circuit boards, inside a wooden container.

Interested in getting a WHASER?

Please get in touch.

A whale surfacing in dark ocean water.

WHASER,

The story of

how the product was born.

Fishing gear entanglement is a major threat to whales.

Lines and nets can entrap whales, restricting movement and preventing essential activities like feeding. This often leads to death by drowning or starvation.

Survivors endure prolonged suffering, sometimes remaining entangled for years, with scars serving as stark reminders of their ordeal.

Close-up of a whale's fin against a white background.

We met with Jess Ward from the charity Whale Wise.

Three friends standing on a bridge by a river, greeting with a handshake. The woman on the left wears a black raincoat and pink scarf, while the man on the right wears a yellow jacket and blue knit hat. The man in the middle has a beige jacket and a beanie, smiling. In the background, there is a stone bridge, buildings, and a blue sky.

Jess told us how they’d been assessing the long term impacts of entanglement on humpback whales in Iceland.

A black ovoid box with white dashed lines and text indicating a pattern of a dance or workout, including moving arms and legs, with labels for different parts of the body and steps.

A key part of the research involves measuring the whales to assess their health.

This is done by attaching a LiDAR range-finding unit to a drone, and flying it over the whales.

Silhouette of a fish with labeled dimensions X by X.
Drone flying above a whale in the water.

By combining this data with the drone’s photos, the whale can be measured.

The LiDAR unit accurately determines the drone’s height above a whale.

We spent a day with Jess to see their current equipment in action.

Person holding a drone with a camera and wiring, outdoors near a body of water and green fields, overcast sky.
A person wearing a yellow life vest paddling a blue kayak on a river, surrounded by green trees and hills.

We sent out Sam on a paddleboard to simulate a whale, and Jess flew the drone and LiDAR unit over him.

A person is sitting in a vehicle with a MacBook Air laptop open, displaying a 3D mapping or planning software of a boat on water among trees. The person is holding a smartphone in their left hand, and the vehicle's backseat has a black bag, colorful items, and some cables. The laptop has notes and stickers on it, including a handwritten note that reads "everyone should be a feminist."

By combining the LiDAR data with the drone’s photos, Jess was able to measure the whale (or in this case, the humpback Rogers).

Close-up of hands working on electronic components on a circuit board, installing or repairing electronics or drone parts.

However, the equipment had many problems.

Loose wiring, susceptible to damage from the drone’s propellors,

Inaccessible SD card,

Lack of feedback (GPS, data-writing, battery level, etc.),

Difficulty landing or catching the system, due to the fragility of the LiDAR.

We decided to design a new LiDAR system for Whale Wise and other research organisations worldwide.

We built and tested various physical prototypes, exploring approaches for an easy-to-use tool.

A drone in flight against a blue sky with clouds, carrying an orange payload.
Two men by a lakeside, one helping the other set up a drone with a view of water, swans, trees, and boats in the background.
Two men in winter jackets and beanies standing outdoors in a field, with one holding a yellow portable power station, smiling at the camera.

We combined the merits of each concept with the new electronics into a fully functional prototype, and headed to the north of Iceland to put it to the test.

After finding Jess and the rest of Whale Wise, we revealed the prototype.

Three people outdoors near a lake with a mountain in the background, with one person holding a yellow case containing equipment, possibly drone parts, and the others looking on, dressed in winter clothing.
A woman in a yellow safety helmet and red jacket holds a drone outdoors with a scenic landscape of water and hills in the background.

Key aspects of the prototype

Detachable, secure handle.

Landing legs (disguised as fins), allowing the device to be landed on the ground.

Recessed LiDAR to protect it during landings.

OLED screen with an ‘All systems go!’ check, with information on the GPS status, battery level, SD card, and a live readout from the LiDAR.

Locking mechanism to attach it to the drone, even while wearing gloves.

USB-C charging, with an integrated battery.

We flew the prototype over a humpback whale.

The data was verified at Whale Wise’s coastal base - the whale was a known individual to the charity, corroborating our new data.

A drone flying in the sky with a blurred landmass in the background.
A man in a yellow jacket and black beanie launching a drone outdoors near a body of water.
A woman with glasses points at a laptop screen displaying a spreadsheet with a video playing. She is sitting at a wooden desk with a window behind her. Two people are nearby, one wearing a dark jacket and the other a beanie, watching her.
A whale swimming in dark water, viewed from above.

With the final learnings from the Icelandic deployment, we refined the concept into a final, fully productised design.

Hand holding two small, light blue and black electronic devices or controllers with buttons and a switch.

The final product is even smaller and lighter than the prototype.

To get a WHASER, or to work with us on another project,
get in touch.

Three people standing outdoors near a body of water, smiling and talking. Two men and one woman, dressed in fall or winter clothing, with a yellow vehicle in the background and a landscape with hills.