Opercular beat rate sensor for remote fish monitoring

O consumo de bens alimentares, nomeadamente de peixes e de outros organismos aquáticos, tem crescido ao longo dos anos devido à crescente densidade populacional, que por consequência, a produção em cativeiro e/ou em ambiente controlado tem sofrido um aumento exponencial especialmente nos últimos anos, não só devido à elevada procura derivada do crescimento populacional como também para proteção das espécies selvagens. Em ambientes de aquacultura, como todos os tipos de produção que afunilam para a otimização da produção, leia-se, produzir mais, mais rápido e em menos espaço, têm como objetivo aumentar a eficiência e consequentemente diminuir o custo de produção. Contudo, os peixes são muito sensíveis ao stress, que por sua vez está fortemente relacionado com a saúde dos mesmos. Conseguir obter informações sobre o estado de stress dos peixes é uma boa prática que permite prever ou até impedir a propagação de doenças na população. Este tipo de informações pode ser expressa pelo peixe por um conjunto de alterações fisiológicas, tais como batimento cardíaco que está relacionado com o ritmo de respiração, libertação de hormonas que podem ser medidas com uma amostra da água onde a cultura se encontra, mudanças de cor do próprio peixe, ou até mesmo mudanças comportamentais tais como alimentação e atitude (ativa ou passiva). Estas mudanças na biologia do peixe resumem-se num crescimento demorado e/ou com doenças. O objetivo deste projeto é desenvolver um dispositivo eletrónico com um sensor capacitivo para ser colocado no opérculo de um peixe de tamanho médio das conhecidas espécies Robalo e/ou Dourada, de modo a conseguir obter o ritmo de batimento do opérculo, que está diretamente relacionado com o ritmo de respiração. O dispositivo é constituído pelo sensor dois elétrodos) e por toda a eletrónica, software e firmware necessários ao funcionamento, medição e transmissão do sinal adquirido pelo sensor. O sensor deverá enviar os dados para o sistema de receção “eZ430-TMS37157” da Texas InstrumentsTM. Este sistema (eZ430-TMS37157) é composto por um recetor, uma antena e uma tag (transponder) que comunica com o sistema recetor por Rádio-Frequência (RF). O sistema recetor utilizado neste projeto já foi anteriormente estudado e modificado (de modo a permitir a utilização de antenas maiores e também mais potência de emissão) por Tiago João Barbosa de Almeida, no desenvolvimento da Tese de mestrado “Radio frequency system for remote fish monitoring in aquaculture”. O consórcio responsável pelo projeto (AquaExcell 2020) definiu que o sistema teria de comunicar com o sistema recetor por rádio frequência (RFID) à frequência de 134.2 kHz, frequência normalmente usada em sistemas de identificação eletrónica interna e/ou externa para animais. Neste projeto, foram desenvolvidos o sensor, o circuito de transmissão, firmware e software necessários para o comunicação e processamento do sinal obtido pelo sensor. Todo este conjunto compõe uma tag, que tem como objetivo substituir a tag que compõe do kit original (eZ430-TMS37157), pela tag desenvolvida em laboratório. As experiências foram implementadas em laboratório, em aquário, com um peixe impresso em uma folha de acrílico e um motor para simular o movimento do opérculo através de ímanes, estando o sensor submerso em água salgada e colocado sobre o opérculo do peixe. O aquário utilizado tem 39 cm de comprimento, 30 cm de altura e 29 cm de largura e foi utilizado com água salgada natural proveniente da praia de Faro. Os resultados das experiências são o Opercular beat-rate (OBR) em batimentos por minuto (bpm) e o sinal ADC (utilizado para calcular a OBR).Fish health and welfare are highly correlated with the stress factor. When exposed to stress, the fish exhibits changes in behavior, growth rate, among other factors. These symptoms can be accessed using different techniques, visually (with cameras or naked eyes), or measured in laboratory (hormones quantity through water sampling), among others. This project aims to develop a capacitive sensor and an electronic device with a capacitive sensor to be placed on the fish operculum, with the ability to measure the breath-rate through the opercular movements and communicate the sensed data over RF-field at the frequency of 134 kHz, a common frequency used on animal identification. The development and analysis of the capacitive sensor and the associated electronics and software and/or firmware are the main objective of this work. The reception system used to receive the data is the “eZ430-TMS37157” from Texas InstrumentsTM. The receptor system was already modified to allow the connection of bigger antennas. The experiments were carried out with a printed fish on acrylic sheet, using a standard model from seabass or golden-bream specimens, with the aid of a motor using magnets to induce the opercular movement. The aquarium used has the dimensions of 39 cm length, 30 cm height and 29 cm width, being filled with saltwater from the local region. The experiments outputs are the opercular beat-rate (OBR) in beats per minute (bpm) and the ADC signal (used for OBR calculations).O presente trabalho foi financiado pelas seguintes projetos e instituições: - Projecto AQUAEXCEL 2020 (Grant agreement ID: 652831) - Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), UID/EEA/50008/202

Fehlertoleranz bei Prozessabläufen: Mit Anwendungen bei akustischen Unterwassernetzwerken

Wie koordinieren sich Robotorteams, wenn die Absprache im Medium stark gestört ist? Dieser Beitrag zur Kooperation autonomer Teams unter Wasser ist als Gemeinschaftsarbeit der Verfasser aus einem Bachelorpraktikum hervorgegangen und untersucht aus der Sicht der angehenden Wirtschaftsinformatiker die notwendigen Nachrichteninhalte und minimalsten Prozessabläufe. Das Ziel sind fehlertolerante und damit verlässliche Netzwerke. Doch wie können Prozesse hierfür entwickelt und validiert werden? Wann ist das mobile Ad-hoc-Netzwerk verlässlich? Die Basisfähigkeiten hierzu werden mittels S-BPM (Subject-orientated Business Process Managment) modelliert und erste Kooperationen abgebildet sowie auf Fehler hin untersucht

Characterisation of long-range horizontal performance of underwater acoustic communication

Underwater acoustic communication is a rapidly progressing field of technology, largely due to recent advances in low cost and power efficient digital signal processors. Unfortunately, the unpredictable and time varying physical properties of the underwater acoustic channel reduce communication reliability over long ranges. This study sought to characterise the performance of horizontal underwater acoustic data communication in various scenarios with particular application to subsea monitoring and control systems.To fulfil the experimental needs, two custom-built high frequency ambient noise recorder and modem control units were developed to operate with commercial underwater acoustic modems. Additionally, an underwater acoustic communication simulator based on the Bellhop propagation model was developed for Matlab, capable of producing performance predictions in both spatial and temporal studies. A series of short-term trials were conducted to determine the limitations of modem performance over different ranges. These trials included shallow water studies off the coast of Perth, Western Australia (D < 30 m), and a French deep water trial (D ≤ 1000 m) which used stand-alone modems. Experimental findings were compared to predictions obtained using two-dimensional range-depth performance simulations.A long-term investigation of the environmental influences on modem reliability was carried out off the coast of Perth in approximately 100 m of water. This involved simultaneously collecting environmental and modem performance data for over 16 days. The signal to noise ratio remained high for the duration of the trial so modem performance fluctuations could be attributed to changes in channel propagation. Using multiple linear regression, the measured environmental parameters were correlated with the observed modem performance and their contributions to an overall fitting curve were calculated. It was determined that the sound speed profile, in addition to the sea surface roughness, contributed strongly to the fitting curve, with a weaker contribution from the measured signal to noise ratio. This result was confirmed by performing temporal simulations which incorporated more detailed time-dependant environmental parameters. By progressively adding more parameters to the simulator including ambient noise, wave height and the sound speed profile, simulations provided more accurate predictions of the observed performanceOverall, the horizontal performance of underwater acoustic communication was characterised in several scenarios from a series of experimental and numerical investigations. Additionally, the developed simulator was shown to be an effective and flexible tool for predicting the performance of an underwater acoustic communication system. The results and tools discussed in this thesis provide an extensive investigation into the factors influencing horizontal underwater acoustic communication. The analysis demonstrates that whilst underwater acoustic communication can be effective, it is not yet a viable alternative to cabled telemetry for long-range subsea monitoring and control applications, where reliability is crucial. Underwater acoustic communication would best be suited as a non-critical or backup method for continuous monitoring systems until channel prediction and equalisation techniques are further refined

A distributed control network for a mobile robotics platform

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-91).by Seán P. Adam.M.Eng

Remote Sensing for Bridge Scour

Pennsylvania has one of the largest number of bridges in the nation with over 22,000 bridges statewide [1]. Most of these bridges are over waterways. As a result these bridges are susceptible to bridge scour, the washing away of fill around structures, which compromises the safety of the bridge. Bridge inspections have a limited frequency at which they can occur. In between these inspections, events may happen that would indicate immediate action be taken. In some cases, the action necessary may be to shut down the bridge to protect the safety of travelers. Additionally, during floods, even if an inspection team is present at a bridge, their traditional means in acquiring data about the state of the bridge could be severely limited. In an effort to continually monitor the health of these bridges, state and federal departments of transportations are investigating different monitoring methods and instrumentation. Notwithstanding, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) needs a low cost monitoring solution to supplement their current monitoring infrastructure. Float out devices are an option that PennDOT has identified as a promising addition to their bridge scour monitoring capabilities. The float out device concept is to bury transmitters at various locations around a bridge structure which would eventually cause them to be released due to the scour's removal of material around the device. A receiver on the bridge would receive the transmission and perform an action. A float out device system would provide an initial indication of scour severity for further investigation. A prototype system using a float out device has been developed for use by PennDOT. This system uses commercial off the shelf (COTS) parts and conforms to the available installation and operations means of the department. The system has been tested in a laboratory setting emulating its target environment and has proven adept at performing its required tasks

The conservation biology of the Monteiro’s storm-petrel and band-rumped storm-petrel on Ilhéu da Praia, Azores

This thesis addresses the conservation of two species of seabird (Monteiro’s and band-rumped storm-petrels) that breed on the same islet in the Azores Archipelago, but at different times of year. Chapter 1 provides a General Introduction to the thesis, and Chapter 2 sets out the General Methods used. Chapter 3 addresses the biotic and abiotic drivers of long-term changes in breeding success, phenology and chick growth. A major concerning finding is that breeding success has declined in both species over the 20-year study period, with this decline being most substantial (~1% per year) for the endemic Monteiro’s storm-petrel. Possible causes of this decline include interacting weather variables (air temperature, wind speed and rainfall) and other species implicated in nesting failures (Barolo Shearwater, Cory’s Shearwater, other storm-petrel species, Madeiran Wall Lizard, and ants). The remaining data chapters combine novel technologies to aid in describing behaviours in the nest and at sea to inform conservation action. Chapter 4 details the development and successful deployment of a cheap but reliable bespoke nest camera system, providing a highly flexible tool for monitoring burrow-nesting birds in remote locations. Chapter 5 utilises this camera technology to quantify both storm-petrel species’ daily and seasonal routines of behaviour, and three categories of threats. Of the two species, Monteiro’s storm-petrel chicks experienced more frequent interactions with all three categories of threats. Chapter 6 is a proof-of-concept study that demonstrates the powerful combination of GPS tracking, camera monitoring and chick weighing, to examine the inter-relation of foraging behaviour and breeding success. This could be deployed in future studies of breeding seabirds to address ongoing conservation challenges. The General Discussion describes the urgent need for conservation action to address the substantial decline in breeding success of the endemic Monteiro’s storm-petrel, highlighting a range of achievable and potentially effective conservation management actions

Opening up containment: making space in Newfoundland salmonid aquaculture

Studies in geography and STS looking at containment-in-practice have shown that thinking about containment as a hermetic closing off of a definite space is not suitable for this world, which is characterized by leakages, overflows, excesses, movements, and borders being crossed, contested and drawn again. However, renderings of containment still play an important role in the practices that make and break our worlds. This thesis attempts to open up containment by thinking through how containment is done in two different cases in sea-based salmonid aquaculture on the south coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Based on insights from poststructuralist geography, materialsemiotic STS, and animal geography, containment is approached as an ongoing spatial practice that needs to be constantly done and done again. This thesis respectively explores the provincial Code of Containment and the making of the rearing environment for farmed fish in and around the net-pen, and articulates containment as a (bio)political way of creating, holding together, and unmaking realities, including industrial salmonid aquaculture and the way animal lives and deaths are valuated

Making the Case to Protect Australia's Coral Sea

The Coral Sea Conservation Zone (referred to in this report as the Coral Sea) is bounded on the west by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, on the east by the edge of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone, on the north by the Torres Strait Protection Zone and on the south by the same southern latitude line as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The area comprises 972,000 km2 . The Coral Sea hosts a high diversity of habitats, ecosystems and species. Only a small portion of this area has been studied, but knowledge gained to date indicates that there are important habitats, migration corridors and ecological processes that sustain unique biological communities. This review draws together the available scientific research to provide a comprehensive description of the physical and biological characteristics of the Coral Sea. The seabed of the Coral Sea is characterised by a vast plain over 4,000 m deep to the northeast, several plateaux and slopes etched by undersea canyons and separated by deep ocean trenches, and, to the south, the northern end of a chain of undersea volcanoes. Eighteen coral reef systems, many with multiple small reefs, emerge from structural high points on the plateaux or from the tops of the volcanoes. Forty-nine small islands and cays form the only terrestrial habitats. At the ocean's surface, the westwardflowing South Equatorial Current enters the Coral Sea as a series of jets between the network of islands that form the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. As this current approaches the Great Barrier Reef, it splits in two to form the Hiri Current to the north and the East Australian Current to the south. This latter current brings warm, low-nutrient water and tropical species southward as a series of eddies. Very little is known about how small-scale circulation patterns affect the Coral Sea's ecology, but slow eddies, which may retain fauna and promote the development of species that do not occur anywhere else, have been discovered over some of the plateaux. The islets and cays of the Coral Sea support a variety of life, ranging from simple food chains based on carrion and detritus to well developed thick forests of Pisonia trees. The cays provide habitat for nesting and roosting seabirds (many of which are of conservation significance) and nesting endangered green turtles. In general, highly exposed reef zones in the Coral Sea are dominated by species that are robust enough to withstand strong wave action, while more sheltered reef habitats have a greater amount of live coral cover (30–50%) and host a larger abundance of fish and invertebrates. Coral, fish and invertebrate populations show key differences from those on the Great Barrier Reef and some affinities with those on the reefs of the western Pacific and the Arafura and Timor Seas. Recent research has uncovered coralline sponges, considered 'living fossils,' in the shallow caves of Osprey Reef. Some reefs support high densities of sharks (~4.4 individuals per hectare) and other predators, and protection in existing no-take Commonwealth Reserves in the Coral Sea has led to healthy populations of otherwise exploited species. Preliminary explorations of deeper Coral Sea reef ecosystems (from 30–40 m to over 150 m) have revealed a great diversity of geological formations along with coral communities that have adapted to low light. Soft corals are an important feature of these deeper coral communities, and gorgonians (sea fans) tend to be very abundant. These mesophotic (low light) communities may act as refugia during disturbance events such as cyclones and bleaching, and may provide larvae during the recovery of these highly isolated reefs

Aeronautical Engineering: A special bibliography with indexes, supplement 56

This bibliography lists 439 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in March 1975