Equipment to Investigate Dolphin Echolocation

Abstract

Investigation of which features of the environment a dolphin uses to make distinctions during echolocation has been a long-standing field of research. To answer this question, match-to-sample (MTS) experiments are performed and acoustic data from the dolphin's biosonar is collected. This project focuses on developing equipment for these experiments, primarily acoustically-distinct targets utilizing “phononic crystals” to precisely tune a material's acoustic response. We used acoustic simulations and 3D printing to create three target prototypes that promised the most diverse frequency responses. Through our testing, we found that the targets had distinct reflection coefficients across a range of frequencies.