Project ECHO (Electronically Controlled HOusing)

Abstract

There are many environmental issues that inflict aquatic life across the planet. Proper monitoring can be essential with preserving aquatic life and preventing any further damage. La Escola Politècnica Superior d'Enginyeria de Vilanova i la Geltrú (EPSEVG) and Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) sponsored a project, called Project ECHO, that would make monitoring aquatic life easier and more efficient. This project’s main goal was improve the deployment of monitoring equipment process LAB already had in place. The most prevalent issues this project aims to solve is how much energy is wasted during deployment of monitoring equipment and how it is not guaranteed the monitoring equipment is working before deployment. In order to save energy and prevent a faulty deployment, a bidirectional communication system can be established that will receive the operating status of the monitoring equipment and be able to power it on and off. The approach of this project was to create a remote control to act as a bidirectional communication system. During the discussion of how to implement this system, it was decided that a housing to hold the equipment and power supply should both be researched and designed. The designed housing eases the deployment and retrieval of the system and protects monitoring equipment at the necessary depths. The result is a system that is interacted with wirelessly and can be easily deployed for a minimum period of 6 months.