UACE2017 Proceedings: Development and testing of low-cost autonomous underwater acoustic recorders

Session:
Design of new experimental facilities to address future problems in underwater acoustics
Paper:
Development and testing of low-cost autonomous underwater acoustic recorders
Author(s):
Panagiotis Papadakis, George Piperakis, Emmanuel Skarsoulis, Emmanuel Orfanakis, Michael Taroudakis
Abstract:
In the laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Measurements of the Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics of FORTH a low-cost autonomous system for underwater acoustic recordings has being developed. The system consists of a hydrophone and an autonomous control and recording unit (based on a Raspberry motherboard) inside a waterproof shell allowing operation at depths up to 70 m. Different hydrophones and shells can be used. The control and recording system is programmable so it can implement various recording schedules and log formats. The duration of operation depends on the characteristics of the recording, the battery capacity and the available storage space. The system was calibrated so that it can be used for measurements of ambient noise along with other potential applications. In this paper the individual system components are presented and its operation and features are described. Results of initial tests at the laboratory including testing the shells under pressure and calibration of the system in a water tank and preliminary results of in-situ tests near Heraklion port are presented and discussed as well.
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