RS Aqua’s Underwater Acoustic Recorder deployed on the Mayflower Autonomous Ship

After its official launch in September, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship is now undertaking testing to prepare for its transatlantic voyage in Spring 2021.

An RS Aqua Porpoise passive acoustic recorder will be deployed on the ship, and will collect a broad spectrum of underwater noise data throughout the voyage. These data will be automatically processed and categorised by IBM systems on the Mayflower, ready for further analysis by University of Plymouth marine mammal experts.  The Porpoise recorder is uniquely suited to the challenge as it can stream its data over Ethernet for real time processing, and has a broadband listening capability that can hear everything from low human made noise to the highest frequency ultrasonic cetacean vocalisations. These data will form the first ever autonomously recorded soundscape of the Atlantic Ocean and give a unique insight into the different marine mammal species encountered by the Mayflower.

Dr Ryan Mowat, Director at RS Aqua commented: “Specifying and providing the Mayflower with a customised version of one of our Passive Acoustic Monitoring recorders was a proud moment for RS Aqua. We’ve found that the streaming capability of our recorders is a necessity for autonomous platforms as it allows these vessels to interpret their environment acoustically in real time. Our recorders can provide an acoustic assessment of the surrounding marine environment as they move through it, and this is important for all sorts of applications, such as vessel navigation, asset tracking, marine mammal observation and defence. This is the fifth unique recorder integration we’ve done, and we’ll be working closely with the Mayflower team during the vessel trials to ensure it is optimised to gather new data on North Atlantic cetacean populations.”

For more information, visit https://www.mas400.com/technology  and www.rsaqua.co.uk .