Work

Acoustic Sensor on Drones

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Presented by Kevin Hock and Dr. Jakob Bergner from Fraunhofer IDMT, this presentation introduces an acoustic sensing front-end mounted on drones to complement visual cameras for agricultural monitoring. Acoustic sensing helps overcome camera limitations caused by poor lighting, fog, or dense foliage, enabling the detection of machinery issues, animal vocalizations, and wildlife activity. To address hardware constraints, heavy drone rotor noise, and a lack of specialized agricultural datasets, the researchers developed a modular system consisting of a microphone array, aerodynamic housing, and an embedded processing unit. Evaluated in simulation and laboratory settings using agricultural soundscapes, this flexible processing pipeline effectively isolates relevant environmental audio from UAV noise to enhance monitoring capabilities.

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21977357

Authors: Hock, Kevin, Bergner, Jakob

Institutions: Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, Leibniz University Hannover

Language: English

Topic: Speech and Audio Processing

Subfield: Signal Processing

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: European Commission

Award: multi-purpoSe Physical-cyber Agri-forest Drones Ecosystem for governance and environmental observation