The passive recording of the click trains of a beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) and the subsequent creation of a bio-inspired echolocation model

A beluga-like model of click train signal is developed by observing beluga’s sound recording. To reproduce the feature of the biosonar signal, this paper uses a signal extracting method with a correction factor of inter-click interval to acquire the parameter of click trains. The extracted clicks were analyzed in the time and frequency domain. Furthermore, a joint pulse-frequency representation was undertaken in order to provide a 2D energy distribution for an echolocation click train. The results from joint pulse-frequency representation indicate that click train can be adjusted its energy distribution by using a multi-component signal structure. To evaluate the capability of the click train to inform the whale of relevant target information perception for the click train, a finite element model is built to reproduce target discrimination by the bio-inspired click train. Numerical results indicate that the bio-inspired click train could enhance the echo-response by concentrating energy into the frequency bins for extracting target feature effectively. This proof-of-concept study suggests that the model of click train could be dynamically controlled to match the target properties, and show a promising way to use various types of echolocation click train to interrogate different features of the target by man-made sonar.