SALINA: Towards Sustainable Live Sonar Analytics in Wild Ecosystems

TL;DR

SALINA is a sustainable, real-time sonar analytics system that improves underwater monitoring in wild ecosystems through energy efficiency and adaptive processing, demonstrated by six months of successful deployment and performance gains.

Contribution

The paper introduces SALINA, a novel system for energy-efficient, real-time sonar data analysis with adaptive processing tailored for long-term wild ecosystem monitoring.

Findings

Up to 9.5% improvement in average precision

10.1% increase in tracking metrics

Successful six-month deployment in natural environments

Abstract

Sonar radar captures visual representations of underwater objects and structures using sound wave reflections, making it essential for exploration, mapping, and continuous surveillance in wild ecosystems. Real-time analysis of sonar data is crucial for time-sensitive applications, including environmental anomaly detection and in-season fishery management, where rapid decision-making is needed. However, the lack of both relevant datasets and pre-trained DNN models, coupled with resource limitations in wild environments, hinders the effective deployment and continuous operation of live sonar analytics. We present SALINA, a sustainable live sonar analytics system designed to address these challenges. SALINA enables real-time processing of acoustic sonar data with spatial and temporal adaptations, and features energy-efficient operation through a robust energy management module. Deployed for six months at two inland rivers in British Columbia, Canada, SALINA provided continuous 24/7 underwater monitoring, supporting fishery stewardship and wildlife restoration efforts. Through extensive real-world testing, SALINA demonstrated an up to 9.5% improvement in average precision and a 10.1% increase in tracking metrics. The energy management module successfully handled extreme weather, preventing outages and reducing contingency costs. These results offer valuable insights for long-term deployment of acoustic data systems in the wild.