Signal processing methods to isolate individual bat FM calls from within the noise of a swarm
Abstract
Unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) technologies are constantly becoming smaller andcheaper, opening the door to a multitude of new applications that include swarming tactics. Withthe shrinking of vehicle technology, engineers are faced with new challenges to fit sensorpackages into the tightly constrained embedded platforms. Although sonar provides a goodoption for imaging the environment, the aperture requirements to create high-fidelity sonarimages are well beyond the available real estate of the smallest UUVs, and mutual-interferencecan be problematic. A practical solution to this problem may lie with bats, animals that fly dailyat high speeds, navigate in complex environments, and echolocate in high densities. This projectis a supplemental project as part of a larger ONR YIP, ???Biologically inspired approaches toovercome mutual-interference by active sensor systems??? N000141612478, which aims tounderstand the sensory and sensorimotor processes that enable agile maneuvering and complexspatial navigation in echolocating bats flying in dense groups and at high speeds. The overallproject will test the hypothesis that Mexican free-tailed bats flying in dense groups avoid themutual-interference problem by making echolocation and flight adaptations on both anindividual and a group level depending on behavioral conditions. This specific project will fundan electrical engineering PhD graduate student, specializing in signal processing, for one year,which will supplement the existing N000141612478 funds. This student will develop signalprocessing methods and analysis algorithms to isolate individual bat FM sounds from within theoverall acoustic recording of a bat swarm. This FM isolation method produced by this projectwill be used in concert with the PI???s existing time-frequency shape quantification and clusteringalgorithms to discover adaptive acoustic behavior in swarming bats that may be emulated inautonomous airborne vehicles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 26, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812522
Entities
People
- Laura N Kloepper
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy