Grant awarded to develop automated acoustic landscape monitoring system

Bioacoustic monitoring technology firm, AgriSound, is close to launching a fully automated acoustic landscape monitoring system, thanks to an industry research grant of almost £220,000 from Innovate UK.

The new system in development aims to revolutionise biodiversity monitoring, with a primary focus on scaling environmental surveillance for agriculture, businesses and policymakers.

The project sees York-based AgriSound collaborating with two partners: Baker Consultants, a UK ecological consultancy, and Crop Innovations, a charity driving agricultural diversification.

The project builds upon AgriSound’s existing insect monitoring system, Polly, to offer a broader range of environmental insights.

By using sophisticated audio analysis algorithms and cloud-based AI, this new product will automatically generate comprehensive biodiversity metrics across diverse landscapes, offering actionable insights into natural ecosystems.

The aim is for the resulting monitoring devices to be made available for as little as £10/month upon deployment.

The technology is being developed to address critical challenges, including the need for real-time ecological data amidst growing demand for biodiversity protection, particularly with new Government policies such as the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS).

By automatically gathering soundscape data and processing it through cloud-based machine learning, AgriSound’s new offering intends to provide a cost-effective method of monitoring remote locations.

Casey Woodward, CEO and co-founder of AgriSound, said: “Our new acoustic monitoring system is the first solution to offer fully automated, maintenance-free landscape monitoring at scale, giving industries and landowners access to more accurate, timely, and comprehensive biodiversity data.

“This will allow for improved compliance with Government policies and offer key insights to manage land sustainably.

“AgriSound’s innovative solution promises to deliver low-cost, holistic biodiversity monitoring and actionable insights for industries, developers, and farmers, as they continue to scale up their efforts to safeguard the environment while meeting stringent regulatory requirements.”

Baker Consultants’ team of experts is on board with the project to validate the system, by comparing the methodology of the technology against existing gold-standard ecological assessment techniques.

Baker Consultants aims to integrate the new system into its services, providing continuous, long-term data collection to augment its expert analysis.

Crop Innovations’ expertise in adapting biological protocols for commercial applications secured its place as the other key partner on this project.

Crop Innovations is set to lead the management and field deployment of this new system, focusing on verifying the technology in real-world conditions.

Dr Carlos Abrahams, director of Ecoacoustics at Baker Consultants, said: “We are anticipating that the new system will greatly expand our capabilities to rapidly generate biodiversity information, and make this available in real-time across a landscape-scale array of sensors.

“This automation of data collection goes beyond, but complements, what we can achieve through manual field surveys, ensuring ecological methods keep pace with technological advancements – and offering clients more detailed data at a lower cost.”

James Theobald, chair of Crop Innovations, added: “Our field facilities and expertise in biological innovation make us perfectly suited to guide the deployment of this game-changing technology.

“We look forward to supporting AgriSound in shaping the future of environmental monitoring.”