Novel Avian and Bat Species Identification System for Offshore Wind Energy Wildlife Risk Assessments

Wind energy developer and regulatory agencies need to manage regulatory permits and authorizations from State and Federal regulatory agencies working to ensure offshore wind energy developments are developed responsibly while protecting biodiversity and promoting cooperative ocean use. The risk to birds and bats from the deployment of offshore wind energy turbines needs species identification capable environmental monitoring tools. These tools are needed to assess and manage these risks and support offshore energy developments. This research project will leverage an stereo camera avian thermal tracking system, developed by a national laboratory to validate our hypothesis that the integration and addition of targeted audio and visual data will significantly enhances species identification capabilities for the thermal tracking system. This research project will integrate and control a gimbal supporting a high dynamic range visible camera and ultrasonic microphone and run experiments to validate this hypothesis. Subsequently, in Phase II, we aim to develop real-time classification models and accompanying software, focusing on a select group of species. This advancement will enable the commercialization and launch of a viable product. Our initial product offering will form the foundation for expanding the features and capabilities of our product line of environmental monitoring systems for the wind energy sector. We will then expand our capabilities to support an increasing number of species and environments on land and sea. Wind energy developed will benefit from faster more accurate licensing approvals and additional operational support tools. Seabirds are a critical part of the ocean ecosystem and with wide foraging and migration patterns that extend the impacted area to a very large space, thus also benefiting many physically dispersed communities.