Data Fusion of Acoustics, Infrared, and Marine Radar for Avian Study

A multisensor data fusion approach via acoustics, infrared camera, and marine radar is proposed and described in the application of avian monitoring. The ultimate scope of avian monitoring is to preserve the population of birds and bats, especially those listed in the endangered list, by observing their activity and behavior over the migration period. With the significant attention toward the construction of off-shore/on-shore wind farms in recent decades, the wind turbines are more threatening the avian life with increasing the risk of birds/bats collision with turbine blades. In order to address this problem, this paper proposes a fuzzy Bayesian-based multisensory data fusion approach to provide the activity information regarding the targets in the application of avian monitoring. The developed technique is used to process the Spring and Fall 2011 migration period.