Development of AUV for Whale following

关于水下鲸鱼行为的研究很少。传统的从船上观察鲸鱼只能让我们了解它们在海洋表面的行为。近年来发展了卫星系统和吸盘- tdr标签系统的新方法。卫星系统可以有效地跟踪水面上的鲸鱼，但无法收集到水下鲸鱼的任何数据。另一方面，吸盘式TDR标签不仅可以在水面上收集鲸鱼的数据，也可以在水下收集鲸鱼的数据，但它必须由研究人员物理地附着在鲸鱼身上。另一个问题是，标签有时会在与鲸鱼分离后丢失。因此，鲸鱼在水下的行为对我们来说仍然是不确定的，因此，建立一种既可以观察鲸鱼在水面上的行为又可以观察鲸鱼在水下的行为的新方法是有希望的。在本研究中，我们提出了一种以AUV（Autonomous Underwater Vehicle）为水下平台的新型鲸鱼观测系统。试验结果表明，所实现的系统是有效的。大多数鲸鱼都有特殊的声音，叫做发声或咔哒声。雄性座头鲸唱由复杂的短语组成的歌曲。人们知道抹香鲸在潜入深水时发出响亮的脉冲宽带声音，称为咔哒声。我们利用信号处理技术分析了它们的声学数据，并开发了一种基于被动声呐的新型紧凑型声学系统，用于水下航行器。利用该系统，AUV可以获取水下每只鲸鱼的方向和深度信息，对其进行亚实时分类和跟踪。为了观察抹香鲸的潜水行为，我们于2002年和2003年在小笠原群岛进行了海试，并对该系统进行了改进。2004年9月，我们终于可以部署水下航行器，并利用该系统收集了一些数据。数据分析结果表明，该系统适用于使用AUV进行抹香鲸跟踪。为了观察座头鲸的行为，我们收集了声音数据，建立了新的声音模型。数据抽样检验的结果表明，该模型适用于座头鲸的分类。接下来，我们将该模型重新构建为更紧凑的设备，以实现AUV，并使用AUV跟踪座头鲸。在此基础上，启动了水声系统河豚观测项目。对于未来的工作，我们想建议在小笠原群岛和冲绳岛附近使用该系统进行可持续的鲸鱼观测。少

There are few studies on the behavior of whales in underwater. Conventional whale observation from ships gives us only the knowledge of their behavior on ocean surface. Recently new methods using satellite system and suction-cup-TDR tag system have been developed. Satellite system is effective for tracking whales on surface, but this system can not collect any data of whales in underwater. On the other hand, suction-cup TDR tag is effective for collecting data of whales not only on surface but in underwater, however it must be physically attached to a whale by researcher. The other problem is that tag is sometimes lost after it was apart from a whale. Consequently whale's behavior in underwater remains still uncertain to us, thus establishment of a new method which can be utilized for observing whale's behavior on surface and in underwater is expected.In this research, we proposed new whales observation system using AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) as an underwater platform. The resu … More lts of several sea trials show that the realized system works effectively.Most whales have particular sounds called vocalizations or clicks. Male humpback whales sing songs composed by complicated phrases. Sperm whales are known that they emit loud impulsive broadband sounds called clicks during their diving to a deep water. We analyzed their acoustic data using signal processing techniques and develop new compact acoustic system based on passive sonar for implementing to AUV. Using this system, AUV can get direction and depth information of each whales in underwater to classify and follow them in sub-real time.For the purpose of observing sperm whale's diving behavior, we did sea trials in 2002 and 2003 off Ogasawara Islands and improved the system. In September 2004, we finally could deploy AUV and collect some data with this system. The result of data analysis indicates this system is suitable for sperm whale following using AUV.For the purpose of observing humpback whales behavior, we collected sound data and established new sound model. The result of data sampling test indicates this model is appropriate to be used for classification of humpback whales. Next, we rebuild this model to more compact device to implement to AUV and track humpback whales using AUV.Based on this research, a river dolphin observation project using acoustic system has been started.For future works, we would like to propose carrying out sustainable whale observations using this system off Ogasawara Islands and off Okinawa Islands. Less