Tyler Reid Funnell Christopher M. Holbrook Darryl W. Hondorp Xiaobo Tan Eric M. Gaskell 2023 <div id="Abs1-section" class="c-article-section"><div id="Abs1-content" class="c-article-section__content"><p>Studies involving acoustic telemetry typically use stationary acoustic receivers arranged in an array or grid. Unmanned surface vehicle (USV)-based mobile receivers offer advantages over the latter approach: the USV can be programmed to autonomously carry a receiver to and from target locations, more readily adapting to a survey’s spatial scope and scale. This work examines the acoustic detection performance of a low-cost USV developed as a flexible sensing platform. The USV was fitted with an acoustic receiver and operated over multiple waypoints set at increasing distances from the transmitter in two modes: drifting and station-keeping. While drifting, the USV was allowed to drift from the waypoint; while station-keeping, the USV used its thruster to hold position. Detection performance of the USV was similar to that of stationary receivers while drifting, but significantly worse while station-keeping. Noise from the USV thruster was hypothesized as a potential cause of poor detection performance during station-keeping. Detection performance varied with the depth of the tethered receiver such that detection range was greater during the deepest (4.6&nbsp;m) trials than during shallower (1.1 and 2.9&nbsp;m) trials. These results provide insight and guidance on how a USV can be best used for acoustic telemetry, namely, navigating to a planned waypoint, drifting and lowering the receiver to a desired depth for listening, and then navigating to the next waypoint.</p></div></div> application/pdf 10.1186/s40317-023-00350-1 en Springer Characterization of acoustic detection efficiency using an unmanned surface vessel as a mobile receiver platform article