Design of a low-cost passive acoustic monitoring system for animal localisation from calls

Yen, Benjamin P.‐C.; Prins, Jemima; Schmid, Gian; Hioka, Yusuke; Ellis, Susan; Marsland, Stephen

doi:10.1109/iros47612.2022.9981127

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This thesis aims to produce an acoustic recording device capable of detecting and localising animal calls. It builds on the work done by University of Auckland student, Benjamin Yen, who built and did the initial programming for a multi-recorder microphone array [8].…”

Section: Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are all designed for indoor use, so are not weather-proof, nor engineered to be accurate in non-ideal environments; they are standalone devices without any scheduling capabilities; and they mostly cost upwards of NZ$1,000 (though some cost as little as NZ$170). Therefore, as the first part of this project, a student from the University of Auckland, Benjamin Yen, engineered an array that would suit the purpose [8].…”

Section: Device Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sound Source Localisation of Calling Birds in Outdoor Environments

Cresswell

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<p>Bioacoustics concerns the analysis of sound produced by animals. It is an important part of conservation research as it is non-intrusive, yet has the potential to inform wildlife managers about the species present in an area. Acoustic recordings units (ARUs) are often used to record the soundscape of an area. Following post-processing, these recordings can be analysed statistically to estimate call rate abundance. However, the lack of information about location of the calling bird means that this cannot be turned into population abundance. Time difference of arrival at multiple synchronised microphones enables the direction of arriving sound to be computed. This can assist in localising calling animals. However, unlike in indoor environments, propagation of sound in the bush can be hard to predict given the effects of wind, terrain, direction the animal was facing in, etc. In this thesis I investigate whether a practical application of sound source localisation of calling birds is possible with current technology. In particular, I investigate (a) the automatic identification of calls from the species of interest, (b) computation of sound direction from a small microphone array and low-power computational system, and (c) sound propagation in the New Zealand forest. As a case study of using the completed system we located a North Island Brown Kiwi incubation burrow based on the calls of the male as he leaves the burrow in the evening. The results show that the method of locating kiwi burrows using the automatic call identification and direction calculation of the system has potential, but there is further work needed to make it practical.</p>

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Section: Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Device Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound Source Localisation of Calling Birds in Outdoor Environments

Cresswell

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Spatial ecosystem monitoring with a Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit (MAARU)

Heath,

Suzuki,

Le Penru

et al. 2024

Methods Ecol Evol

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Multi‐microphone recording adds spatial information to recorded audio with emerging applications in ecosystem monitoring. Specifically placing sounds in space can improve animal count accuracy, locate illegal activity like logging and poaching, track animals to monitor behaviour and habitat use and allow for ‘beamforming’ to amplify sounds from target directions for downstream classification. Studies have shown many advantages of spatial acoustics, but uptake remains limited as the equipment is often expensive, complicated, inaccessible or only suitable for short‐term deployments. With an emphasis on enhanced uptake and usability, we present a low‐cost, open‐source, six‐channel recorder built entirely from commercially available components which can be integrated into a solar‐powered, online system. The MAARU (Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit) works as an independent node in long‐term autonomous, passive and/or short‐term deployments. Here, we introduce MAARU's hardware and software and present the results of lab and field tests investigating the device's durability and usability. MAARU records multichannel audio with similar costs and power demands to equivalent omnidirectional recorders. MAARU devices have been deployed in the United Kingdom and Brazil, where we have shown MAARUs can accurately localise pure tones up to 6 kHz and bird calls as far as 8 m away (±10° range, 100% and >60% of signals, respectively). Louder calls may have even further detection radii. We also show how beamforming can be used with MAARUs to improve species ID confidence scores. MAARU is an accessible, low‐cost option for those looking to explore spatial acoustics accurately and easily with a single device, and without the formidable expenses and processing complications associated with establishing arrays. Ultimately, the added directional element of the multichannel recording provided by MAARU allows for enhanced recording of sonic environments, further enabling a potential step change in the uptake of spatial acoustics in the wider field.

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Design of a low-cost passive acoustic monitoring system for animal localisation from calls

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Sound Source Localisation of Calling Birds in Outdoor Environments

Sound Source Localisation of Calling Birds in Outdoor Environments

Spatial ecosystem monitoring with a Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit (MAARU)

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