Follow on Google News News By Tag Industry News News By Place Country(s) Industry News
Follow on Google News | Acoustic Monitoring System For Endangered SpeciesBy: CAS DataLoggers CAS DataLoggers provided its data acquisition and control solution to Coherent Technical Services Inc. (https://www.goctsi.com/) The Problem The design team's challenge is to accurately identify the proximity of several endangered animal species in the area, particularly the Mohave Ground Squirrel which is listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. However these animals are difficult to locate—they hibernate, they're small in size (only 3-4 inches), and hard to spot. This makes it unproductive and time-consuming to repeatedly take traditional "boots in the field" surveys of the creatures. The Solution To solve this problem CTSI is developing an acoustical data acquisition location system to give base personnel a highly-accurate method for finding these animals and other protected species. Rather than just identifying the animals' general location (say within a quarter-mile or so), the team is working to pinpoint their actual bearing by developing a unique proprietary system which acquires acoustic data outdoors in the midst of the animals' desert habitat. The System While designing their system, the team required a high-precision data acquisition and control system with a large number of inputs and which could send the data online for detailed analysis. As part of the three ARITS systems under development, CTSI is using three Delphin Expert Vibro Data Acquisition and Control Systems (https://www.dataloggerinc.com/ Acoustic Triangulation In CTSI's proposed setup, the microphones are mounted on stationary boards on three tripods placed within the ground squirrels' desert habitat. The spacing of these systems depends on particular animal vocalization intensity that users are looking for at the time. In the case of the elusive Mohave Ground Squirrel (https://en.wikipedia.org/ Alarm Capability Whenever a microphone on an array picks up a sound, the Delphins immediately record the signal for later analysis. Each Expert Vibro system has its own internal data storage capability (32 GB/1 billion- point memory) to record over extended periods. The system memory can record raw time signals as well as spectra and characteristic values (Peak-Peak, Gap). Data Transmission Once every two weeks, a team member visits the ARITS system and retrieves the project acoustic recordings data over Ethernet. In a quick process the user simply transfers the Delphin's data to the PC sharing the enclosure with it. After completion of the next two systems in early 2015, the operator will use the same procedure to collect their data. As an option, if more input channels are required, the Expert Vibro devices can be synchronized with each other. Vibration Analysis Software The Expert Vibro system utilizes Delphin ProfiSignal analysis software for data acquisition, vibration analysis and visualization. ProfiSignal is available to the team as a quick analysis tool in the field, being modular and scalable with an intuitive interface. Users can monitor measurement data on the fly while time signal processing and characteristic curve computations take place directly within the hardware's DSP. Benefits As the Digital Signal Processing element of the ARITS system, the Expert Vibro DAQ system measures, records and transmits the acoustic data, and also performs postprocessing analysis. Here a single system is providing real time monitoring, local data storage, alarming, and analysis. Delphin is very cost-effective for this application given the high number of channels required–48 in total, and the high sampling rate required. Around January the CTSI team will finish construction of the first system and construct two more next spring in April. Local testing is planned for next summer to establish and work with the triangulation. The team is hopeful about the system's success and expects that their upcoming demonstration at Edwards in the autumn will help to further protect the native species in the area. Meanwhile Delphin's remote monitoring capability means that the team's data is viewable not only locally but also online. CTSI's team engineer explains, "The strongest factor that made us go with Delphin was the simultaneous data sampling from the system's 16 channels with the GPS time stamping option–that was critical for us since this is all time-of-arrival critical measurement. With 16 microphones on each system's array board, it's key to the success of the project." For more information on Delphin Expert Vibro Data Acquisition and Control Systems (https://www.dataloggerinc.com/ End
Account Email Address Account Phone Number Disclaimer Report Abuse
|
|