Whale Detector

Dashboard visual
System diagram
Alert captain gets via text message
Arduino setup with distance sensor
Servo motor acting as ship motor

I was initially inspired to do an ocean-related project after spotting the word “sailor” on my tag and came up with the idea about 2 minutes before the theme was conveniently deemed navigation. I’m super passionate about ocean conservation (here’s a fun video I made about whales: https://youtube.com/shorts/MS5-SupgXWw), and I chose to create a system that senses when whales are close and shuts off the cargo ship motor and notifies the captain to prevent ship strikes. This is crucially important to allow whale populations to recover, especially for endangered ones like North Atlantic Right whales. I built a prototype by using an Arduino Uno R4 WiFi and attaching a servo motor to represent a “ship motor” and a distance sensor to detect how far away the “whale” is. Under 10 centimeters, the “captain” is sent a text message, the ElevenLabs voice announces the slow down, and the dashboard is updated. I learned a lot from interfacing with sensors, spending a while getting the Arduino to work (again), pivoting away from an entire machine learning model (although I would have gone for it if I weren’t solo), using generative AI in creative ways (both for development and external features), and much more. Next, it would be great to create a machine learning model that can add in whale calls and camera visuals to determine whether a whale is nearby with greater accuracy. Thanks to the sponsors and student organizers for a wonderful hackathon :)