Patent ID: 9625592
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: G01V

Claim:
1. A method for localizing a marine animal in an underwater environment implemented by a first passive acoustic monitoring system, the first passive acoustic monitoring system comprising a network of acoustic sensors adapted to carry out measurements of acoustic signals, wherein the method comprises: obtaining, from the network of acoustic sensors, a first set of measured data of an acoustic signal emitted by a marine animal; defining a space of dimensional representation of the underwater environment discretized in a plurality of predefined cells; for each cell of a predefined set of cells among said plurality, obtaining an error defined as a value of a cost function for said cell, said cost function giving a deviation between: at least some of said measured data of the first set; and corresponding theoretical data obtained by assuming that the marine animal is located in said cell, said errors obtained for the predefined set of cells enabling to obtain at least one piece of information about localization of the marine animal; establishing an error map from said errors obtained for the predefined set of cells; visually providing said error map to the operator; computing, from said error map, a probability distribution function of presence of the marine animal; determining a zone of uncertainty of localization of the marine animal as a function of the probability distribution function; comparing the zone of uncertainty of localization with a predefined safety exclusion zone; and providing a piece of information on probability of presence of the marine animal inside the predefined safety exclusion zone, as a function of the result of the comparing.