A Sparse and Distributed Array for Ocean Acoustics
Abstract
"Big data has become a standard tool in several scientific disciplines. Underwater acoustics hasfailed to progress at the same speed as other fields, predominantly due to the cost ofinstruments and experiments. Building on our recent successful development of a low-costmooring, here we propose to acquire fifteen (15) low-cost, user-friendly, underwater acousticmoorings.All of these moorings can be easily deployed and recovered, contributing to the collection ofmassive datasets that are critically needed to advance the field of artificial intelligence foranti-submarine warfare. Moreover, a specific context of interest is when all the moorings aredeployed in an area of interest. Together, they form a sparse and distributed array, which canbe used for various ocean acoustics applications.Although the distributed array is not synchronized, it can still be used for spatio-temporalcharacterization of the acoustical environment. Indeed, leveraging on recent signal processingadvances by the PI, each node of the array can be used to infer environmental informationbetween the node and a sound source. As a result, the distributed array can be used to infer thespatial variability of the environment, as well as its temporal fluctuations if the sound sourceis recurrent. Of particular interest is the use of sources of opportunity (e.g. marine mammalvocalizations and/or ship noise), which can be used for environmental characterization, aswell as to time-synchronize the array nodes.Overall, the requested equipment, combined with sound sources of opportunity, willdrastically simplify at-sea experimental set-ups. The long term objective is to modify the waywe do ocean acoustic experiments, and to transition from sophisticated (and expensive)equipment to a swarm of basic and expandable sensors."
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112643
Entities
People
- Julien Bonnel
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution