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Research and ACM SRC Posters Archive

Echoes of Earth: Building an Autonomous Environmental Lab for Acoustic Sensing


Poster Type: ACM Student Research Competition, Undergraduate

Author: Hudson Reynolds (Boston University), Alex Tuecke (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Mike Sherman (University of Chicago), Kate Keahey (Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), University of Chicago)

Supervisor: Kate Keahey (Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), University of Chicago)

Abstract: Current bioacoustic monitoring technologies cost $600-$1,000+ per device and require manual data retrieval and maintenance by experts, preventing real-time insights and limiting deployment scale. We develop a prototype autonomous monitoring and detection system that streams high-quality audio in real time, while drastically reducing costs and operational overhead.

Our approach combines Listener, a $375 solar-powered recording device built with ESP32 and AudioMoth, with Aggregator, a $210 Raspberry Pi 5-based hub that collects streams from multiple Listeners over WiFi HaLow while performing local inference using Cornell BirdNET. The system eliminates manual retrieval through continuous streaming, supports 25 simultaneous Listeners per Aggregator, and provides integration for visualization and storage. We successfully deployed the system at organic vineyards in Michigan, demonstrating its practical viability.

Our poster presents the system architecture, real-time metrics and analysis results, power consumption benchmarks, and cost comparisons to highlight how this solution enables biodiversity monitoring at unprecedented scale.

Best Poster Finalist (BP): no
Poster: PDF
Poster Summary: PDF


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