Development of AUV for Whale following

很少有关于鲸鱼在水下行为的研究。传统的鲸鱼观察船只给我们的知识，他们的行为在海洋表面。近年来，利用卫星系统和吸盘-TDR标签系统的新方法已经被开发出来。卫星系统可以有效地跟踪水面上的鲸鱼，但该系统无法收集鲸鱼在水下的任何数据。另一方面，吸盘式TDR标签不仅在水面上而且在水下都能有效地收集鲸鱼的数据，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，鲸在水下的行为对我们来说仍然是不确定的，因此，建立一种新的方法，可以用来观察鲸的行为在水面和水下是很有希望的。结果 ...更多信息 几次海上试验的结果表明，所实现的系统是有效的。大多数鲸鱼有特殊的声音，称为发声或点击。雄性座头鲸唱的歌是由复杂的乐句组成的。众所周知，抹香鲸在潜入深水时会发出响亮的脉冲宽带声音，称为滴答声。我们利用信号处理技术分析了它们的声学数据，并开发了新的基于被动声纳的紧凑型声学系统，以实现AUV。利用该系统，水下机器人可以获得鲸群在水下的运动方向和深度信息，从而对鲸群进行亚实时分类和跟踪。为了观测抹香鲸的潜水行为，我们于2002年和2003年在小笠原群岛附近海域进行了海试，并对系统进行了改进。2004年9月，我们终于可以部署AUV和收集一些数据与该系统。数据分析结果表明，该系统适用于抹香鲸的水下机器人跟踪。为了观察座头鲸的行为，我们采集了声音数据，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。在此基础上，开展了利用声学系统观测海豚的研究，并提出了在小笠原群岛和冲绳海域利用声学系统进行可持续的鲸类观测的设想。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