Researcher Ramon Miralles, from the GTS group, together with the PRL group at iTEAM, has published a new scientific breakthrough developed within the TED2021 project, focused on technologies for passive acoustic monitoring. The work introduces an innovative fiber-optic hydrophone based on Bragg gratings (FBG) and multicore fibers (MCF), capable of transforming acoustic waves into precisely measurable mechanical deformations, even in harsh environments.
The study combines this new sensor with a U-Net deep neural network, enabling noise reduction and the detection of very low-amplitude signals. The system has proven its effectiveness in detecting Fin Whale pulses, and the results have just been published in the journal Measurement (Elsevier), establishing a reference for future FBG-based hydrophones applied to the conservation and study of marine life.