圆环形传感器阵列超指向性频率不变响应波束优化方法

提出了一种适用于圆环形传感器阵列的超指向性频率不变响应波束优化方法。首先,基于前期在最小均方误差准则下得到的不同频率处权值向量与期望波束权值向量的解析函数关系,将指向性因子、误差敏感度函数和最小均方误差进一步表达成了期望波束权值向量的函数;然后,构建了一个多约束优化问题,获得了满足指向性、稳健性、频率不变性等约束条件的最优期望波束,由此合成得到了最优宽带频率不变响应超指向性波束,并给出了相应的仿真和实验结果。      

圆柱阵子阵分级处理的稳健超指向性波束形成方法

提出了圆柱阵子阵分级处理的稳健超指向性波束形成方法。首先建立了圆柱阵分两级子阵进行波束形成的信号模型,接着利用空间均匀噪声场中噪声互谱矩阵的循环特性得到基于特征波束分解与综合模型的圆柱阵超指向性的最优解,然后仿真研究了其误差敏感度函数、阵增益和波束图等性能指标,并与圆柱阵的传统全局处理方法进行了对比。提出的分两级子阵处理的超指向性方法与传统全局处理方法相比不仅降低了数据存储量和波束形成计算量,而且进一步提升了稳健性,并且在低频段的阵增益远远高于常规波束形成的值,对水下声呐阵列的设计具有一定的参考价值。      

Steering vector sensor array elements with linear cardioids and nonlinear hippioids

The purpose of this work is to study the impact due to individual vector sensor element steering patterns on linear array beamforming. Standard, linear beamformers employ cardioid beampatterns for each vector sensor. In this work, a class of vector sensor element steering patterns beyond the standard cardioid was examined. The element weighting is nonlinear but nonadaptive, making it simple to implement in hardware processing. The new sensor steering patterns, referred to as hippioids, are products of cardioids and various powers of hippopedes. The angular resolution of individual sensors, the impact on angular resolution from arrays of varying aperture, and peak-to-sidelobe levels will serve as performance measures. An example of the differences in vector sensor steering patterns is provided using measured directional frequency and recorded buoy data.     

A single hop architecture exploiting cooperative beamforming for wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a single hop architecture for a cooperative wireless sensor network and analyze the attained distributed beamforming gain performance using the theory of random arrays. All nodes in the system transmit a single carrier such that the signals add up constructively towards the direction of the fusion center. The potential directive beamforming gains are investigated for different sensor network densities which are expressed as the number of nodes per carrier wavelength squared. The multiple access capability of the sensor network is achieved by employing an on-off keying orthogonal signaling technique, which is usually employed in atmospheric optical systems. Finally, we investigate the average loss in directivity gain when the received signal from each sensor node follows a Ricean distribution. The results show that high directive gains can be achieved in practical wireless sensor networks using simple sensor nodes.     

On array design for matched-field processing

Conventional plane-wave beamforming array design guidelines are motivated by the desire to obtain particular beampattern characteristics, such as main lobe width and side lobe levels. These design guidelines are appropriate for arrays employed for beamforming, where a plane-wave signal model is utilized to derive both the array design parameters and the beamforming algorithm. However, matched-field processing utilizes full-field acoustic propagation models to exploit the complexities of ocean acoustic propagation. As a result, there may be more appropriate design guidelines for arrays employed for matched-field processing. In this paper, general guidelines for matched-field processing array design utilizing a normal mode propagation model are proposed. Various line array configurations are evaluated with respect to source localization performance, and the results suggest that arrays designed for matched-field processing should provide a unique representation of each propagating mode along the extent of the array. Further, the empirical analyses support the guidelines suggested by the theoretical analyses and show that arrays which are far from meeting conventional beamforming array design requirements may be more than sufficient for matched-field processing.     

Observer-based beamforming algorithm for acoustic array signal processing

In the field of noise identification with microphone arrays, conventional delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming is the most popular signal processing technique. However, acoustic imaging results that are generated by DAS beamforming are easily influenced by background noise, particularly for in situ wind tunnel tests. Even when arithmetic averaging is used to statistically remove the interference from the background noise, the results are far from perfect because the interference from the coherent background noise is still present. In addition, DAS beamforming based on arithmetic averaging fails to deliver real-time computational capability. An observer-based approach is introduced in this paper. This so-called observer-based beamforming method has a recursive form similar to the state observer in classical control theory, thus holds a real-time computational capability. In addition, coherent background noise can be gradually rejected in iterations. Theoretical derivations of the observer-based beamforming algorithm are carefully developed in this paper. Two numerical simulations demonstrate the good coherent background noise rejection and real-time computational capability of the observer-based beamforming, which therefore can be regarded as an attractive algorithm for acoustic array signal processing.     

基于压缩感知的矢量阵聚焦定位方法

本文针对噪声源近场定位识别问题,利用声源分布在空间域具有稀疏性,在压缩感知理论框架下建立了新体系下的矢量阵聚焦波束形成方法,用于解决同频相干声源的定位识别问题.新方法可在小快拍下准确获得噪声源的空间位置,且不损失对噪声源贡献相对大小的评价能力.通过详细的理论推导、仿真分析和试验验证,证明了基于压缩感知的矢量阵聚焦定位新方法本质上实现了l1范数正则化求解下的波形恢复和空间谱估计,因此具有较高的定位精度,较强的相干声源分辨能力、准确的声源贡献相对大小评价能力以及较高的背景压制能力,可应用于水下复杂噪声源的定位识别.     

Nearfield broadband array design using a radially invariant modal expansion

This paper introduces an efficient parameterization for the nearfield broadband beamforming problem with a single parameter to focus the beamformer to a desired operating radius and another set of parameters to control the actual broadband beampattern shape. The parameterization is based on an orthogonal basis set of elementary beampatterns by which an arbitrary beampattern can be constructed. A set of elementary beamformers are then designed for each elementary beampattern and the desired beamformer is constructed by summing the elementary beamformers with frequency and source-array distance dependent weights. An important consequence of our result is that the beamformer can be factored into three levels of filtering: (i) beampattern independent elementary beamformers; (ii) beampattern shape dependent filters; and (iii) radial focusing filters where a single parameter can be adjusted to focus the array to a desired radial distance from the array origin. As an illustration the method is applied to the problem of producing a practical array design that achieves a frequency invariant beampattern over the frequency range of 1:10 (which is suitable for speech acquisition using a microphone array), and with the array focused either to farfield or nearfield where at the lowest frequency the radial distance to the source is only three wavelengths.     

Adaptive beamforming for array signal processing in aeroacoustic measurements

Phased microphone arrays have become an important tool in the localization of noise sources for aeroacoustic applications. In most practical aerospace cases the conventional beamforming algorithm of the delay-and-sum type has been adopted. Conventional beamforming cannot take advantage of knowledge of the noise field, and thus has poorer resolution in the presence of noise and interference. Adaptive beamforming has been used for more than three decades to address these issues and has already achieved various degrees of success in areas of communication and sonar. In this work an adaptive beamforming algorithm designed specifically for aeroacoustic applications is discussed and applied to practical experimental data. It shows that the adaptive beamforming method could save significant amounts of post-processing time for a deconvolution method. For example, the adaptive beamforming method is able to reduce the DAMAS computation time by at least 60% for the practical case considered in this work. Therefore, adaptive beamforming can be considered as a promising signal processing method for aeroacoustic measurements.     

单基地多输入多输出声呐的方位分辨力

为了研究波形分集和发射子阵对多输入多输出(multiple-input multiple-output:MIMO)声呐方位分辨力的影响,建立了同时适用于MIMO声呐和传统有源声呐的远场和近场波束图推导模型,证明了这两种声呐具有相同的方位分辨力。首先,将MIMO声呐发射阵划分为子阵无重合与子阵有重合两种情况,并对传统有源声呐的发射阵也进行相同的划分。据此,推导出两者的远场和近场阵列流型向量均可表示为发射与接收阵列流型向量的直积。接着,利用阵列流型向量的一致性证明了波束图(远场和近场)的一致性。进一步地,证明了发射子阵有重合的情况等效于对发射阵列进行幅度加权(发射阵列中间部分的阵元权值大于两端部分的阵元权值),其可获得更低的波束图旁瓣级但不能提高方位分辨力。理论分析与仿真结果表明:MIMO声呐的有效孔径等于发射与接收联合孔径,其方位分辨力由发射与接收阵列结构所决定,波形分集和发射子阵并未带来更高的方位分辨力。      

A fast signal subspace approach for the determination of absolute levels from phased microphone array measurements

Phased microphone arrays are used in a variety of applications for the estimation of acoustic source location and spectra. The popular conventional delay-and-sum beamforming methods used with such arrays suffer from inaccurate estimations of absolute source levels and in some cases also from low resolution. Deconvolution approaches such as DAMAS have better performance, but require high computational effort. A fast beamforming method is proposed that can be used in conjunction with a phased microphone array in applications with focus on the correct quantitative estimation of acoustic source spectra. This method bases on an eigenvalue decomposition of the cross spectral matrix of microphone signals and uses the eigenvalues from the signal subspace to estimate absolute source levels. The theoretical basis of the method is discussed together with an assessment of the quality of the estimation. Experimental tests using a loudspeaker setup and an airfoil trailing edge noise setup in an aeroacoustic wind tunnel show that the proposed method is robust and leads to reliable quantitative results.     

Beamforming using spatial matched filtering with annular arrays (L)

A linear array beamforming method for ultrasonic B-mode imaging using spatial matched filtering (SMF) and a rectangular aperture geometry was recently proposed Kim et al., [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 852-861 (2006)]. This letter extends those results to include circularly symmetric apertures. SMF applied to annular arrays can improve the lateral resolution and echo signal-to-noise ratio as compared with conventional dynamic-receive delay-sum beamforming. At high frequencies, where delay and sum beamforming is problematic, SMF showed greatly improved target contrast over an extended field of view.     

Acoustic analysis by spherical microphone array processing of room impulse responses

Spherical microphone arrays have been recently used for room acoustics analysis, to detect the direction-of-arrival of early room reflections, and compute directional room impulse responses and other spatial room acoustics parameters. Previous works presented methods for room acoustics analysis using spherical arrays that are based on beamforming, e.g., delay-and-sum, regular beamforming, and Dolph-Chebyshev beamforming. Although beamforming methods provide useful directional selectivity, optimal array processing methods can provide enhanced performance. However, these algorithms require an array cross-spectrum matrix with a full rank, while array data based on room impulse responses may not satisfy this condition due to the single frame data. This paper presents a smoothing technique for the cross-spectrum matrix in the frequency domain, designed for spherical microphone arrays, that can solve the problem of low rank when using room impulse response data, therefore facilitating the use of optimal array processing methods. Frequency smoothing is shown to be performed effectively using spherical arrays, due to the decoupling of frequency and angular components in the spherical harmonics domain. Experimental study with data measured in a real auditorium illustrates the performance of optimal array processing methods such as MUSIC and MVDR compared to beamforming.     

一种深度学习的立体阵波达方向估计方法

针对常规波束形成主瓣宽且目标分辨能力低的问题,提出一种基于深度卷积神经网络的波达方向估计方法。算法使用常规波束形成计算二维空间功率谱,将预处理后的空间功率谱图输入深度卷积神经网络。该文利用神经网络学习解卷积映射关系,输出主瓣宽度更窄的空间功率谱图,从而实现高分辨率二维波达方向估计。该算法对阵列结构没有限制,适用于立体阵。仿真结果表明该文方法在不同目标个数、快拍数及信噪比参数下均能准确估计目标方向。该文方法目标分辨能力优于常规波束形成方法。在低快拍情况下,目标方向估计误差低于自适应波束形成方法。     

Robust supergain beamforming for circular array via second-order cone programming

The phenomenon of supergain for a circular array and its robust beamforming are presented. The coplanar superdirective array gain of the circular array, although it is not so extreme as an endfire line array, outperforms a lot over that of a conventional delay-and-sum beamformer in isotropic noise fields when the inter-element spacings are much smaller than one-half wavelength. However, optimum beamforming algorithms can be extremely sensitive to slight errors in array characteristics. The performance are known to degrade significantly if some of underlying assumptions on the sensor array is violated. Therefore, white noise gain constraint is used to improve the robustness of the supergain beamformer against random errors. We show that the design of the weight vector of robust supergain beamformer can be reformulated as a form of second-order cone programming and resolved efficiently via the well-established interior point method. Results of computer simulation for a 24-element circular array confirm satisfactory performance of the approach proposed in this paper.     

球体表面圆环阵模态域稳健高增益波束形成方法研究

通过对考虑障板影响下噪声互谱矩阵的精确求解,给出了一种计算刚性球体表面圆环阵阵增益的模型,并在此基础上提出了一种模态域二阶锥规划稳健高增益波束形成方法。该方法根据相位模态波束形成理论,将阵元域稳健加权向量转换为模态域的稳健模态系数,从而设计出不同模态阶数下的稳健高增益波束。由于采用了白噪声增益约束以及低频段较低的模态阶数,该方法提高了超增益波束形成器的稳健性。仿真结果表明该方法能够提供更多的稳健波束形成的方案,在多个关联的波束性能指标之间获得比常规方法和阵元域稳健性方法更合理的折衷。      

基于DFT插值的线性约束最小方差宽带自适应阵列

本文提出一种具有频率不变波束图的线性约束最小方差宽带自适应算法。首先给出了具有频率不变波束图的连续线阵的灵敏度函数与离散线列阵加权系数之间的关系，然后给出了使用DFT插值法求解各子带阵列权系数的方法，最后将DFT插值法应用于线性约束最小方差宽带自适应阵列。理论分析及仿真结果表明，该算法可以在实现最小方差波束形成的同时保持波束图基本不随频率变化，且该方法可以降低宽带自适应阵列的运算量。     

High-order angular response beamformer for vector sensors

A linear processing scheme for computing higher-order angular response modes of a vector sensor is described. Examples of modal response beampatterns are presented. The response modes form (in principle) a complete, orthonormal set that can be transformed into steerable sets of one or more directive beams. The linear processing scheme facilitates calibration of vector sensor measurement systems. The angular resolution that can be achieved with the new processing scheme is predicted to be (155/N_m) degrees, where N_m is the highest order of computed response mode, for the higher orders. The number of higher-order response modes appears to be limited only by the computational power available.     

Beamforming correction for dipole measurement using two-dimensional microphone arrays

In this paper, a beamforming correction for identifying dipole sources by means of phased microphone array measurements is presented and implemented numerically and experimentally. Conventional beamforming techniques, which are developed for monopole sources, can lead to significant errors when applied to reconstruct dipole sources. A previous correction technique to microphone signals is extended to account for both source location and source power for two-dimensional microphone arrays. The new dipole-beamforming algorithm is developed by modifying the basic source definition used for beamforming. This technique improves the previous signal correction method and yields a beamformer applicable to sources which are suspected to be dipole in nature. Numerical simulations are performed, which validate the capability of this beamformer to recover ideal dipole sources. The beamforming correction is applied to the identification of realistic aeolian-tone dipoles and shows an improvement of array performance on estimating dipole source powers.     

A numerical optimization approach to acoustic hull array design

A numerical optimization approach is presented to optimize passive broadband detection performance of hull arrays through the adjustment of array shading weights. The approach is developed for general hull arrays in low signal-to-noise ratio scenarios, and is shown to converge rapidly to optimal solutions that maximize the array's deflection coefficient. The beamformer is not redesigned in this approach; only the shading weights of the conventional beamformer are adjusted. This approach allows array designers to use the array to minimize the impact of known sources of noise on detection at the beamformer output while maintaining acoustic array gain against an unknown source. The technique is illustrated through numerical examples using hull-borne structural noise as the noise source; however, the design concept can be applied to other design parameters of the array such as element position, material selection, etc.