IRAP: An integrated, real-time, autonomous passive acoustic monitoring system for beaked whale detection, localization, and tracking

The integration and demonstration of passive sonar hydrophone arrays into autonomous undersea platforms for acoustic marine mammal monitoring has witnessed significant advances in the last few years due to the availability and scalability of low-cost, low-power commercial technology for acoustic rem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2016-10, Vol.140 (4), p.3181-3181
Main Authors: Premus, Vince, Abbot, Philip, Gedney, Charles, Christman, Russ, Helfrick, Mark, Campbell, Richard, Douglas, Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The integration and demonstration of passive sonar hydrophone arrays into autonomous undersea platforms for acoustic marine mammal monitoring has witnessed significant advances in the last few years due to the availability and scalability of low-cost, low-power commercial technology for acoustic remote sensing. In this paper, we will review the at-sea performance of a nine-element Mills Cross high frequency hydrophone array (HFA) integrated into an autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) for the detection, classification, localization, and tracking (DCLT) of beaked whales during a deployment conducted off leeward Kauai in February, 2016. Using passive sonar equation analysis, we will review the design rationale of the HFA, and quantify system performance using standard signal processing metrics such as measured array gain, tracking accuracy, and detection range on a calibrated high-frequency source transmitting replica beaked whale click trains at a de minimus source level. A candidate autonomous real-time passive sonar processing architecture that combines an adaptive beamformer/matched filter front-end with a false alarm mitigation back-end to balance detection sensitivity, classifier robustness, and processing throughput will also be presented. We conclude with a cost/power/persistence trade-off for some commercially available autonomous platforms. [This work was supported by NAVFAC Living Marine Resources Program.]
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4969998