Project
Acoustic Event Detection (AED)
LABORATORY OF APPLIED BIOACOUSTICS.
Introduction:
The LAB is developing a system for real-time detection, classification and localization
(DCL) of acoustic events at sea. The system is to be installed in an autonomous
battery-powered buoy. Examples of acoustic events are biosonar that is produced by
many cetaceans, communication whistles such as those used by dolphin species, or
simply the increase in background noise levels due the passage of a ship. The full DCL
hardware requires a relative large amount of power (e.g. 10 W) and cannot run 24/7 on
a battery powered buoy. It needs to run in a duty cycle, or it needs to be started when
an acoustic source is in the area, or both.
Project Brief:
This project is aimed at developing a separated Acoustic Event Detection (AED)
electronic circuit that processes the analogue data from a hydrophone and wakes up the
main DCL system if acoustic events of interest are detected. The circuit should run
continuously with low power consumption and have programmable detection strategies
and thresholds.
Objectives are:
• Assessment of the different acoustic events that may occur and identification of
their key features that would allow their detection. This will include man made
and animal made sounds of interest.
• Design and realization of an electronic AED circuit to perform detection. It will
probably be a mixed type analogical and digital (low power microcontroller)
circuit.
• Design and implementation of a communication protocol between the AED
circuit and the DCL system (provably a serial RS232 port) to notify the system
of the type of event after waking and to allow some configuration of the AED
circuit (e.g. don’t wake up the DCL for at least the next 2 hours; only wake up
for a cetacean signal, increase the threshold levels, etc.).
• Program a user interface to allow the configuration of the AED circuit
parameters from a personal computer connected to the same RS232 port.
Company
Name: Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics
Address: EPSEVG Campus - UPC
Contact person: Joan Vicent Castell
Project team:
Number of students: Minimum 3. Maximum 5
Students speciality:
 Electrical engineering
 Electronics engineering
 Computer engineering.
 Telecommunications engineering.