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Abstract:
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The Acoustic Buoy is a project between the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) and the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). In areas that the human activities produce high noise
levels, such as oil exploration or construction, there is a need to monitor the environment for the
presence of cetaceans. Another need is for fishing, to prevent endangered species from being killed.
This can be done with an Autonomous Acoustic Buoy (AAB). Mooring or anchoring at to the seafloor
can be costly, especially in deep water, for these situations a free floating buoy is required that can
monitor the environment and send an alert message when cetaceans are detected nearby or noise
levels have exceeded a certain threshold.
As an ongoing project different components of the overall concept have been researched and
developed, a buoy has been designed, software and hardware have been developed for data
acquisition, and a watchdog system has been built to ensure a safe and autonomous unattended
operation of the electronics. But one of the key things the overall concept is still missing is the
communication system, in short a system needed for transferring the collected data to the end user.
Therefore our problem statement is as follows, how can data be transferred from a collecting buoy
to the end user and be presented in an accessible and easy to use interface.
In order to monitor a large area several autonomous acoustic buoys can be deployed. In order to
increase the radio coverage every AAB has the capability of acting as a node in a wireless mesh
network so the alarm can automatically find its way to the ship, base or shore point where the end
user control station is located. The overall system consists of two parts, the first is the transmission
of data between the buoy and the control station and second is the user-interface for displaying alert
messages on a map for the end user. Both parts are going to be developed during the European
Project Semester 2013 |
