宽带恒定束宽波束形成器的设计与实现

本文提出了一种设计宽带恒定束宽波束形成器的方法,这对应用于海底探测和分类问题的声纳系统来说十分重要,对于给定频带宽度的信号,选择一定数量的频率点来表达其频率响应,对于一个给定的频点,可以通过现有方法导出满足恒定宽要求的加权矢量,例如对于一个线阵列,可用切比雪夫多项多得到其加权矢量,因此对于一个具有Ｎ个阵元的宽带阵,如果选择Ｍ个频率点,可以得到一个ＮＭ的加权矩阵,这个矩阵的每一行代表一个阵元的频率响     

Broadband optimal contrast resolution beamforming

This paper proposes a novel receive beamformer architecture for broadband imaging systems that uses unique finite impulse response (FIR) filters on each channel. The conventional delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer applies receive apodization by weighting the signal on each receive channel prior to beam summation. Our proposed FIR beamformer passes the focused receive radio frequency (RF) signals through multi-tap FIR filters on each receive channel prior to summation. The receive FIR filters are constructed to maximize the contrast resolution of the system’s spatial response. The broadband FIR beamformer produces spatial point spread functions (PSFs) with narrower mainlobe widths and lower sidelobe levels than spatial PSFs produced by the conventional DAS beamformer.We present simulation results showing that FIR filters of modest tap lengths (3-7) can yield marked improvement in image contrast and point resolution. Specifically we show that 7-tap FIR filters can reduce sidelobe and grating lobe energy by 30 dB and improve contrast resolution by as much as 20 dB compared to conventional apodization profiles. This improvement in contrast resolution comes at the expense of a decrease in beamformer sensitivity. We investigate the effects of phase aberration and show in simulation results that the multi-tap FIR beamformer outperforms the unaberrated DAS beamformer by 8-12 dB even in the presence of moderate aberration characterized by a root-mean-square strength of 28 ns and a full-width at half-maximum correlation length of 3.6 mm. We show experimental results wherein multi-tap FIR filters decrease sidelobe energy in the resulting 2D spatial response while achieving a narrow mainlobe. We also show results where the FIR beamformer improves the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) in simulated B-mode cyst images by more than 4 dB. Our algorithm has the potential to significantly improve ultrasound beamforming in any application where the system response is reasonably well characterized. Furthermore, this algorithm can be used to increase contrast and resolution in one-way beamforming systems such as acousto-optic and opto-acoustic imaging.     

宽带波束形成器的设计与实现（英文）

The designs and implementations of broadband beamformers are reviewed and discussed.Broadband beamformer includes discrete Fourier transform(DFT) implementation of a frequency-domain beamformer and finite impulse response(FIR) implementation of a timedomain beamformer.The designs of weights at each frequency bin for the DFT beamformer and that of FIR filters associated with each sensor for the FIR beamformer are both introduced.Performance analysis and comparisons for several typical approaches to them are presented.A unified approach,i.e.,multiple-constrained approach,to narrowband beamformer is provided and is extended to the FIR implementation of broadband case.The unified approaches include the existing individual approaches as their special cases,which leads to much more flexible designs.Design examples of broadband robust adaptive beamformer with constant mainlobe response and controlled sidelobes are given to illustrate the behavior.     

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.     

Optimal design of FIR beamformer with frequency invariant patterns

Two approaches to the optimal design of FIR beamformers with frequency invariant patterns using second-order cone programming (SOCP) are proposed. The first approach is a two-step method, which is implemented via separately optimal array pattern synthesis and optimal FIR filters design. The array weights for each frequency bin within the working frequency band are designed to insure that the array patterns approximate the reference ones. And the FIR filter corresponding to each sensor is designed to insure that the frequency responses approximate the array weights. The second approach is a direct method, in which the beam response is expressed as a linear function of FIR filter tap weights and the filters are designed by jointly optimizing the spatial and frequency responses to achieve the desired array patterns. All the optimal design problems (array pattern synthesis, FIR filter design and joint optimization) are formulated as the SOCP, which can be solved efficiently using the well-developed interior-point methods. Results of computer simulations and lake experiment for a twelve-element semicircular array confirm satisfactory performance of the two approaches proposed in this paper.     

浅海非均匀水平阵宽带声场信号无源孔径扩展

大孔径水平阵对于浅海低频水声物理实验研究和应用至关重要,然而受实际情况制约,通常使用的水平基阵孔径十分有限,通过孔径扩展处理来扩展基阵孔径是一条重要途径。传统的无源孔径扩展方法是建立在均匀线阵、匀速相对运动和相干窄带连续信号的基础上的,难以适用于非均匀阵以及非连续宽带声源的情况。针对这些问题,提出了非均匀阵宽带声场信号的无源孔径扩展方法。使用静止布设在海底的非均匀水平短阵接收运动声源重复发射的宽带声信号,先开展均匀空间插值,然后在阵元域和波束域进行宽带扩展孔径处理。仿真和实验结果表明,在水深约70 m的浅海波导环境中,纵向间隔27.5 m的2个阵元接收20~200 Hz宽带声场,其空间插值结果与真值的相关系数大于0.99,说明宽带声场插值方法的合理性。在水平非均匀、纵向孔径250 m的短阵接收声场无法分析简正波频散特征的情况下,仿真和实验数据经过宽带无源孔径扩展处理得到孔径大于1 km的均匀线阵的声场,能高分辨区分各阶简正波,证明所提方法是有效的。      

有距离辨识度的传声器阵列波束优化算法研究*

小尺度线性传声器阵列在便携式通信设备中具有潜在应用前景,其波束优化算法大多关注于抑制来自与声源不同方向的噪声,而不能有效地抑制与声源同方向的噪声。本文通过对几种典型波束优化策略进行改进,增加线性约束条件,使得阵列兼具方向和距离辨识度。论文对比了几种优化方法的波束性能,同时讨论了约束条件对波束旁瓣的影响,并提出了鲁棒性的优化方案。仿真结果显示,合理的优化策略和线性约束条件可以使阵列波束获得很好的聚焦性能。     

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。     

Noise suppression using the coherent onion peeler

An innovative noise suppression algorithm, called the coherent onion peeler (COP) (patent detained) is derived by minimizing the error in the coherent subtraction of the data from a single plane wave model. The COP solution "collapses" for all beamforming algorithms to the same solution at the complex hydrophone FFT level. Thus, any beamformer can be applied to the residual FFTs after the COP has been applied. The COP is applied to the strongest interferer first and the residual FFTs represent the acoustic field with this interferer coherently "peeled back" like the outer skin of an onion. This procedure can be repeated any number of times to coherently suppress the noise from all interferers present. A new nonadaptive beamformer is developed that "blends" together the best beam pattern properties of conventional beamforming (CBF) near array design frequency and the generalized fourier integral method (GFIM) at very low frequencies (VLF). In between these frequency extremes, the GFIM-CBF Blend (patent pending) (G-C Blend) is a frequency-dependent weighted average of both individual beamformers. COP and G-C Blend are applied to the broadband noise emitted by the tow ship, which severely degrades the performance of the towed array; COP reduced this broadband noise by over 19 dB in a single pass.     

特定频率响应FIR滤波器的设计及其在水声中的应用

在水声信号处理中，有时普通滤波器不能够满足应用要求，需要利用具有任意的给定频率响应的滤波器，本文利用自适应方法设计具有给定频率响应的FIR滤波器，将将该方法设计的滤波器用于产生宽带信号的精确时延信号和进行时域宽带波速形成，使用效果较好。该类滤波器使用非常有效。而且计算量小，易于工程实现。     

球谐域类正则化宽带超指向性波束形成算法

提出一种球谐域类正则化宽带超指向性波束形成算法,通过结合超指向性波束形成器与延迟求和波束形成器控制阵列白噪声增益和指向性因数,推导类正则化宽带超指向性波束形器的球谐域表达式。在此基础上设计新的可控指向性因数波束形成器,可在不显著放大低频白噪声的前提下实现设定的波束宽度。采用32元球阵的仿真结果表明,对于语音测试场景,类正则化波束形成器的最高PESQ得分相比于传统的超指向性波束形成器与延迟求和波束形成器分别提高了约0.5和0.4,平均词错率分别减少了约9.5%和8.1%。主观测试实验也表明类正则化波束形成器在方向性噪声和扩散场噪声环境下都可以获得更好的主观听觉感受。利用实验数据对算法性能进行测试,实验结果同样验证了该方法在实际声学环境中的有效性。      

Optimal array pattern synthesis for broadband arrays

Broadband beamformers with constant mainlobe response over the frequency of interest are desirable in many applications including underwater acoustics, ultrasonics, acoustic imaging and communications, and so on. Solutions to this problem have been presented for specific array geometry often requiring a larger number of sensors. And the array pattern synthesis error minimization is employed for the whole field of view, which leads to suboptimal designs. In this paper, a broadband array pattern synthesis approach to designing time-domain constant mainlobe response beamformer is proposed. By imposing constraints both on the mainlobe spatial response variation over frequency and on the sidelobes of the beamformer, several optimization criteria are presented and the corresponding convex second-order cone programming implementations are given. In this approach, no preliminary desired beampattern is required and the beam responses variation minimization is employed only in the mainlobe region and not in the sidelobe regions, which improves the beamformer mainlobe synthesis accuracy. Equally, one can obtain lower sidelobes at the same mainlobe synthesis accuracy. This approach is applicable to arrays with arbitrary geometry. Simulation and experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach. Performance comparisons of the proposed beamformers and the existing beamformer are also provided.     

Comparison of the measured and theoretical performance of a broadband circular microphone array

The design and construction of a circular microphone array (CMA) that has a wide frequency range suitable for human hearing is presented. The design of the CMA was achieved using a technique based on simulated directivity index (DI) curves. The simulated DI curves encapsulate the critical microphone array performance limitations: spatial aliasing, measurement noise, and microphone placement errors. This paper demonstrates how the non-regularized DI curves for a given beamforming order clearly define the bandwidth of operation, in other words, the frequency band for which the beamformer has relatively constant and maximum directivity. Detailed and comprehensive experimental data that characterizes the CMA beamformer are also presented.     

Frequency Downconverting Fiber Grating-Based Beamformers for High-Capacity Phased Arrays

A technique is presented to remove the beat noise limitation in multibeam beam formers using a simple all-optical microwave frequency downconversion technique prior to performing the true-time delay equalization in the optical domain. The frequency conversion concept enables a significant increase in beam-number capac ity to be achieved due to the elimination of beat noise limits, and also effectively removes the power penalty due to chromatic dispersion limitations of the chirped grating units in the beamformer. The Bragg grating requirements for the frequency converting beamforming network are analyzed and show that tanh-profile apodized gratings can meet the isolation, reflectivity, and narrow bandwidth requirements. For an X-band phased array, more than a twofold increase in beam capacity is shown through the use of the frequency conversion technique with the grating-based beamformer, and the resulting beamformer has the minimum number of optical interconnects with true-time delay operation.     

Frequency Downconverting Fiber Grating-Based Beamformers for High-Capacity Phased Arrays

A technique is presented to remove the beat noise limitation in multibeam beam formers using a simple all-optical microwave frequency downconversion technique prior to performing the true-time delay equalization in the optical domain. The frequency conversion concept enables a significant increase in beam-number capac ity to be achieved due to the elimination of beat noise limits, and also effectively removes the power penalty due to chromatic dispersion limitations of the chirped grating units in the beamformer. The Bragg grating requirements for the frequency converting beamforming network are analyzed and show that tanh-profile apodized gratings can meet the isolation, reflectivity, and narrow bandwidth requirements. For an X-band phased array, more than a twofold increase in beam capacity is shown through the use of the frequency conversion technique with the grating-based beamformer, and the resulting beamformer has the minimum number of optical interconnects with true-time delay operation.     

基于干扰协方差矩阵重构的恒定束宽鲁棒自适应波束形成

针对宽带波束形成中的恒定束宽波束响应优化设计问题与鲁棒性问题展开研究。首先,提出一种基于相位补偿的恒定束宽全局优化设计方法,通过对阵列流形向量进行相位补偿来设计恒定束宽波束,与现有的一些方法相比,该方法不仅能获得全局最优解,而且物理实现简单。同时,还提出一种基于协方差矩阵重构的鲁棒自适应宽带波束形成算法。该算法采用Capon估计器估计样本数据的空间一频率谱密度函数,然后对期望信号波达方向之外的角度区间进行积分来重构干扰加噪声协方差矩阵,最后利用重构的协方差矩阵设计自适应波束形成器权系数。该波束形成器设计问题被表述成凸优化问题求解。仿真结果表明,在整个输入信噪比范围内,该算法几乎都能获得接近理想值的输出信干噪比。      

快速收敛最小方差无畸变响应算法研究及应用

常规最小方差无畸变响应(MVDR)自适应波束形成是一种高分辨窄带波束形成器,它是利用实际声场的窄带互谱密度矩阵(CSDM)估计出自适应波束形成权向量。在实际应用中,MVDR算法需要较长的观测时间估计协方差矩阵,不利于对高速运动目标进行定位;对于宽带目标信号,MVDR算法需要对每一个CSDM进行求逆运算,计算量较大;在相干源条件下,目标信号之间会发生"对消"现象,MVDR算法性能急剧恶化。本文提出了基于子带子阵处理的快速收敛MVDR自适应波束形成方法。首先将全频带划分成一组子带,将接收线阵划分成一组子阵,然后对每一子带计算降维的驾驶协方差矩阵(STCM),从而得到快速收敛MVDR自适应波束形成的权值和空间谱估计结果。同时采用双向空间平滑方法对相干源进行MVDR空间谱估计。仿真和海试数据处理结果表明该算法在保证高分辨力的同时,具有瞬时收敛的性能,双向空间平滑技术具有良好的解相干性能。      

Frequency-invariant robust adaptive beamforming based on interference covariance matrix reconstruction

Consider the problems of frequency-invariant beampattern optimization and robustness in broadband beamforming.Firstly,a global optimization algorithm,which is based on phase compensation of the array manifolds,is used to construct the frequency-invariant beampattern.Compared with some methods presented recently,the proposed algorithm is not only available to get the global optimal solution,but also simple for physical realization.Meanwhile,a robust adaptive broadband beamforming algorithm is also derived by reconstructing the covariance matrix.The essence of the proposed algorithm is to estimate the space-frequency spectrum using Capon estimator firstly,then integrate over a region separated from the desired signal direction to reconstruct the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix,and finally caleulate the adaptive beamformer weights with the reconstructed matrix.The design of beamformer is formulated as a convex optimization problem to be solved.Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is almost always close to the optimal value across a wide range of signal to noise ratios.     

融合插值点优化的多项式结构宽带波束形成器设计方法

多项式结构设计方法是主瓣指向可调宽带波束形成器设计的一类重要方法。多项式结构的阶数是有限的,导致主瓣实际指向与期望指向之间存在偏差,因而影响了波束形成器的指向性指数。针对这一问题,该文提出了一种基于插值点优化的多项式结构宽带波束形成器设计方法。首先,引入多项式结构插值点处阵列响应的空间导数约束,以减小主瓣指向偏差;进而利用粒子群优化算法对多项式结构中的插值点进行优化,以充分利用插值点位置提供的自由度进一步提升多项式结构宽带波束形成器的性能。优化设计结果表明,与现有设计方法相比,该文提出的方法不仅降低了主瓣的指向偏差,同时也提高了指向性指数,有效改善了多项式结构宽带波束形成器的性能。