Project
Title: ACOUSTIC BUOY MESH ALARM SYSTEM
Introduction:
THE AUTONOMOUS ACOUSTIC BUOY (EPS-AAB)
The EPS-AAB (Autonomous Acoustic Buoy) is an ongoing student project with the final
objective to design a buoy capable of monitoring an area for (acoustic) cetacean activity or
anthropogenic noise.
In previous years, among other things, a buoy has been designed, software and hardware has
been developed for data acquisition, and a watchdog system has been built to ensure a safe
and autonomous unattended operation of the electronics.
THE MESH ALARM SYSTEM (‘EPS-MAS’)
The AAB uses a computer system able to record, classify, store and send acoustic information
with a high level of quality for scientific purposes. In order to save energy the system can be
programmed to be in sleeping mode unless an acoustic event takes place. The audio signal is
continuously monitored by low power electronics and when an acoustic event takes place an
‘alarm’ is generated. This serves to awake the embedded computer and is to be immediately
reported to the end user.
In order to monitor a large area several AAB buoys can be deployed. These buoys will all have
the capability of sending “alarms” when a cetacean presence is detected or a certain noise
level is exceeded. In order to increase the radio coverage every AAB has the capability of
acting as a node of a wireless mesh network so the alarm can automatically find its way to
the ship, base or shore point where the end user terminal is installed.
The EPS-MAS (‘mesh alarm system’) can be viewed as the continuation of the EPS-AAB
(‘autonomous acoustic buoy’) project with new challenging objectives ahead.
These objectives are not expected to be all fulfilled in one semester. Accordingly, the actual
project's objectives will be adjusted on the background of the participating students.
Project Brief:
For certain applications, only the ‘alarm’ of presence is needed and no recording is necessary.
The EPS-MAS project will work to implement this simplified solution
Then, using a commercially available radio transceiver and the existing LAB proprietary C-code
for controlling the mesh network’s operation and the existing AAB watchdog system, the
following tasks need to be realized. In 2012 the students will work on one or more of them,
depending on their formation:
- Adapt and implement the same LAB mesh code on a PIC microcontroller for the mesh to
operate without the need of a host computer.
- Integrate the watchdog system with the sound monitoring-alarm generation system and the
mesh system in a single board.
- Physically construct the boards and do field tests with them to assess their real behaviour and
capabilities. Theoretical models and RF propagation simulations.
- Design a final receiver (MAS-Receiver); a small box that will show the incoming alarm on an
LCD panel to the user. It will have PC connectivity.
- Program a PC user interface able of displaying the alarms on a map, to track their
movements, etc. when connected to the MAS-Receiver.
- Outline a marketing plan to commercialize the system to whale watching companies or
institutions working in cetacean's population monitoring, biological studies, etc. and to industrial
oriented companies that want to reduce their impact in the sea ecology by monitoring and
controlling the amount of noise they introduce.
Company
Name: LABORATORY OF APPLIED BIOACOUSTICS
Address: UPC – VILANOVA I LA GELTRU
Avd. Víctor Balaguer s/n, Vilanova i la Geltrú 08800
Contact person:
Project team:
Number of students: 3 to 6
Students speciality:
x Business Management
 Mechanical engineering
 Electrical engineering
x Electronics engineering
 Chemical engineering
x Computer engineering.
x Telecommunications engineering.