Optimization of conventional beamformer shading weights for conformal velocity sonar

A numerical optimization technique that uses sonar array noise measurements is used to determine conventional shading weights that maximize the broadband deflection coefficient at the output of the optimal square-law detector, across a frequency band of interest. This process maintains the structure of the conventional processor while providing performance improvement typical of adaptive techniques. The performance of the optimized time domain delay-and-sum beamformer is compared with that of the traditional beamformer that uses conventionally chosen shading weights. Application of this method to conformal velocity sonar array data is shown to provide large improvements in performance over heuristic designs.     

Evaluation of the dominant mode rejection beamformer using reducedintegration times

Increasing the number of hydrophones in an array should increase beamformer performance. However, when the number of hydrophones is large, integration times must be long enough to give accurate cross-spectral matrix (CSM) estimates, but short enough so that the dynamic behavior of the noise described by the CSM is captured. The dominant mode rejection (DMR) beamformer calculates adaptive weights based on a reduced rank CSM estimate, where the CSM estimate is formed with a subset of the largest eigenvalues and their eigenvectors. Since the largest eigenvalue/eigenvector pairs are estimated rapidly, the integration time required is reduced. The purpose of this study was to examine the DMR beamformer performance using a bottom-mounted horizontal line array in a shallow-water environment. The data were processed with a fully adaptive beamformer and the DMR beamformer. The DMR beamformer showed better performance than the fully adaptive beamformer when using arrays with larger numbers of hydrophones. Thus, in highly dynamic noise environments, the DMR beamformer may be a more appropriate implementation to use for passive sonar detection systems     

Theory and analytical performance evaluation of generalizedcorrelation beamformers

Traditionally, passive detection and localization of an acoustic source has been based on exploiting the relative differences in temporally averaged power outputs of contiguous beams of an element-weighted beamformer. An alternate approach, the generalized correlation beamformer (GCBF), is proposed where a weighted Toeplitz-averaged (spatially averaged) correlation function is used to estimate the beamformer output power. All element-weight sequences can be transformed into correlation-weight sequences through a convolution operation. Additional weight sequences which cannot be generated from a convolution of real element-weight sequences are available for use in the GCBF. A special case of the GCBF was proposed by Wilson et al. (1995) in which the correlation-weights are set to unity, a correlation-weight sequence which cannot be obtained from any classical element-weight sequence. Although such a “boxcar” correlation-weight sequence produces a sharper main peak power response (improved resolution), it has the undesirable effect of producing abnormally high (positive and negative power) sidelobes. General analytical performance bounds are developed that accurately reflect the GCBF detection and bearing localization performance for a noise model that includes spatially white noise and spatially discrete interferers (clutter). Analysis results indicate that the GCBF with Bartlett correlation-weights outperformed the GCBF with unity correlation-weights for both detection and bearing estimation except when the clutter bearing is close to the signal bearing     

一种功率谱相关的基元域近场强干扰抑制方法

针对影响拖曳线列阵声纳系统目标检测性能的两种典型近场强干扰源,由宽带近场阵列模型,提出了基于功率谱相关的干扰抵消方法,通过比较基元域频域信号与干扰波束信号功率谱之间的相似关系,找到与每路基元信号相匹配的干扰分量信号,最后通过频域块自适应滤波算法实现每路基元域信号中的干扰抵消。宽带仿真结果与海试表明,这种方法在强干噪比和低信噪比条件下,比最小方差无失真响应和传统基元域干扰抵消方法在阵增益方面提高约10dB。相比传统基元域干扰抵消方法,这种方法能够实现抵消拖船干扰的同时抵消邻近目标强干扰。     

Accurate Acoustic Signal Parameter Estimation for Marine Geodesy Surveys

Acoustic signal parameter estimation is important for diverse marine geodesy surveys and several other applications. However, the received signal from a far-field target characterized by planar wavefront propagation is frequently affected by strong nearby interfering signals. Their presence deteriorates the performance of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation for far-field target. In order to enhance the reception of signal from far-field target, the near-field/far-field (NFFF) beamformer is proposed. Such a beamformer optimizes beam pattern for far-field detection by maximizing beamformer output in the direction of the far-field target with the imposed condition to eliminate interfering signals generated in near-field locations. As the interference suppression only occurs at the position of near-field interference, a possible blind zone for far-field detection in conventional methods is not created. The NFFF beamformer is applicable for coherent signals and the scenario with multi interferences. For stationary situation where interferers locations are fixed, the NFFF beamformer computations do not require time updates with associated computational load. Furthermore the proposed method can be extended to several new situations such as acoustic monitoring performed from a stationary platform subjected to water currents, waves, winds and other variables, all of them generating nearby interferences and also to different array configurations including 2D and 3D arrays.     

Adaptive port-starboard beamforming of triplet sonar arrays

For a low-frequency active sonar (LFAS) with a triplet receiver array, it is not clear in advance which signal processing techniques optimize its performance. Here, several advanced beamformers are analyzed theoretically, and the results are compared to experimental data obtained in sea trials. Triplet arrays are single line arrays with three hydrophones on a circular section of the array. The triplet structure provides the ability to solve the notorious port-starboard (PS) ambiguity problem of ordinary single-array receivers. More importantly, the PS rejection can be so strong that it allows to unmask targets in the presence of strong coastal reverberation or traffic noise. The theoretical and experimental performance of triplet array beamformers is determined in terms of two performance indicators: array gain and PS rejection. Results are obtained under several typical acoustic environments: sea noise, flow noise, coastal reverberation, and mixtures of these. A new algorithm for (beam space) adaptive triplet beamforming is implemented and tuned. Its results are compared to those of other triplet beamforming techniques (optimum and cardioid beamforming). These beamformers optimize for only one performance indicator, whereas in theory, the adaptive beamformer gives the best overall performance (in any given environment). The different beamformers are applied to data obtained with an LFAS at sea. Analysis shows that adaptive triplet beamforming outperforms conventional beamforming algorithms. Adaptive triplet beamforming provides strong PS rejection, allowing the unmasking of targets in the presence of strong directional reverberation (e.g., from a coast) and at the same time provides positive array gain in most environments.     

基于水听器阵的广义相关波束形成算法研究

传统上都是使用基于常规波束形成(CBF)输出功率的不同进行声源的被动检测和定位。广义相关波束形成,是一种旨在将平均Toep litz相关函数用于估计波束形成的输出功率。从线性矢量水听器阵出发,分析了常规波束形成,对广义相关波束形成(GCBF)进行了深入研究,通过对广义相关波束形成器进行“W ilson”和“Bartlett”加权,可以分别得到FIM(WFIM)和CBF,对这三种波束形成器进行了理论分析和计算机仿真,结果表明三个波束形成器的分辨能力从高到低依次是:FIM、WFIM、CBF。     

Adaptive beamforming of a towed array during a turn

During maneuvering, towed array beamforming degrades if a straight array is assumed. This is especially true for high-resolution adaptive beamforming. It is experimentally demonstrated that adaptive beamforming is feasible on a turning array, provided that array shape is estimated. The array shape can be inferred solely from the coordinates of the tow vessel's Global Positioning System (GPS) without any instrumentation in the array. Based on estimated array shape from the GPS, both the conventional beamformer and the white noise constrained (WNC) adaptive beamformer are shown to track the source well during a turn. When calculating the weight vector in the WNC approach, a matrix inversion of the cross-spectral density matrix is involved. This matrix inversion can be stabilized by averaging the cross-spectral density matrix over neighboring frequencies. The proposed algorithms have been tested on real data with the tow-vessel making 45/spl deg/ turns with a 500-m curvature radius. While turning, the improvement in performance over the assumption of a straight array geometry was up to 5 dB for the conventional beamformer and considerably larger for the WNC adaptive beamformer.     

ROC evaluation of adaptive beamforming in a simulated shallow waterenvironment

An optimal evaluation of adaptive beamforming techniques in a reverberation-limited shallow water environment is presented. A comprehensive simulation, using the sonar simulation toolset (SST) software in conjunction with the generic sonar model (GSRT) software, is used to create realistic beam data complete with target, noise, and reverberation. Adaptive beamforming techniques from the recursive least squares (RLS) family are applied to enhance detection performance via interference rejection. Two techniques are considered: linearly constrained beamforming using the minimum variance distortionless response (MVOR) beamformer and constrained adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) using the joint process least squares lattice (JPLSL) algorithm. Target detection trials, summarized in the form of receiver operator characteristics (ROC), are used to evaluate performance of the two adaptive beamformers. Results demonstrate mixed performance in reverberation-limited shallow water environments     

Beam forming on bottom-interacting tow-ship noise

Ship noise received on a horizontal array towed behind the ship is shown to be useful as a potentially diagnostic tool for estimating local acoustic bottom properties. In numerical simulations, tow-ship noise which bounces off the bottom is processed on a beamformer that shows the arrival angles; the beamformer output is readily interpreted by relating it to the Green's function of the acoustic wave equation. Simple signal processing is shown to be sufficient to extract the propagation angles of the "trapped" (i.e., propagating) modes of the acoustic waveguide. By relating the trapped modes to a basic geophysical model of the bottom, one can predict acoustic-propagation conditions for a particular bottom-interacting ocean acoustic environment.     

基于二阶锥规划的空域维纳滤波

提出了基于二阶锥规划的空域维纳滤波。基于噪声与阵列流型不相关的特性,将阵列的方向向量作为期望通过二阶锥规划方法对阵列快拍进行维纳滤波。利用维纳滤波抑制噪声的能力,提高阵列的信号检测和方位估计性能。通过仿真研究,验证了单目标时,其低信噪比下的信号检测性能优于Bartlett波束形成,其方位估计的信噪比门限要低于Bartlett波束形成和MUSIC算法,因而是一种优良的波束形成器。该波束形成器用于多波束测深仪和侧扫声纳等海洋测绘设备的阵列,可以有效的提高设备的作用距离和测量精度。     

A computerized system for assessing towed array sonar functionalityand detecting faults

A computer-based system that processes hydrophone and beam noise data from a towed horizontal line array sonar has been developed. The system also produces various displays that can be used to help assess the functionality of the sonar and to identify faults that cause degraded performance. The system-and various statistics used for characterizing or quantifying a given aspect of the sonar's performance are discussed. The results are presented in visual formats to aid in rapid assessment and quantification of the sonar's performance. Examples obtained from the system during recent towed array ambient noise measurement exercises are given to illustrate its utility for real-time performance monitoring and its capability for providing clues to aid in fault localization     

Active sonar detection in shallow water using the Page test

The use of active sonar in shallow water results in received echoes that may be considerably spread in time compared to the resolution of the transmitted waveform. The duration and structure of the spreading and the time of occurrence of the received echo are unknown without accurate knowledge of the environment and a priori information on the location and reflection properties of the target. A sequential detector based on the Page test is proposed for the detection of time-spread active sonar echoes. The detector also provides estimates of the starting and stopping times of the received echo. This signal segmentation is crucial to allow further processing such as more accurate range and bearing localization, depth localization, or classification. The detector is designed to exploit the time spreading of the received echo and is tuned as a function of range to the expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as determined by the transmitted signal power, transmission loss, approximate target strength, and the estimated noise background level. The theoretical false alarm and detection performance of the proposed detector, the standard Page test, and the conventional thresholded matched filter detector are compared as a function of range, echo duration, SNR, and the mismatch between the actual and assumed SNR. The proposed detector and the standard Page test are seen to perform better than the conventional thresholded matched filter detector as soon as the received echo is minimally spread in time. The use of the proposed detector and the standard Page test in active sonar is illustrated with reverberation data containing target-like echoes from geological features, where it was seen that the proposed detector was able to suppress reverberation generated false alarms that were detected by the standard Page test     

Improved time-delay estimates of underwater acoustic signals usingbeamforming and prefiltering techniques

Passive sonar systems that localize broadband sources of acoustic energy estimate the difference in arrival times (or time delays) of an acoustic wavefront at spatially separated hydrophones, The output amplitudes from a given pair of hydrophones are cross-correlated, and an estimate of the time delay is given by the time lag that maximizes the cross correlation function. Often the time-delay estimates are corrupted by the presence of noise. By replacing each of the omnidirectional hydrophones with an array of hydrophones, and then cross-correlating the beamformed outputs of the arrays, the author shows that the effect of noise on the time-delay estimation process is reduced greatly. Both conventional and adaptive beamforming methods are implemented in the frequency domain and the advantages of array beamforming (prior to cross-correlation) are highlighted using both simulated and real noise-field data. Further improvement in the performance of the broadband cross-correlation processor occurs when various prefiltering algorithms are invoked     

A Study of Spatial Processing Gain in Underwater Acoustic Communications

Spatial processing, including beamforming and diversity combining, is widely used in communications to mitigate intersymbol interference (ISI) and signal fading caused by multipath propagation. Beamforming suppresses ISI (and noise) by eliminating multipath (and noise) arrivals outside the signal beam. Beamforming requires the signals to be highly coherent between the receivers. Diversity combining combats ISI as well as signal fading by taking advantage of the independent information in the signal. Classical (spatial) diversity requires that signals are independently fading, hence are (spatially) uncorrelated with each other. In the real world, the received signals are neither totally coherent nor totally uncorrelated. The available diversity is complex and not well understood. In this paper, we study the spatial processing gain (SPG) as a function of the number of receivers used, receiver separation, and array aperture based on experimental data, using beamforming and multichannel combining algorithms. We find that the output symbol signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a multichannel equalizer is predominantly determined by the array aperture divided by the signal coherence length, with a negligible dependence on the number of receivers used. For a given number of receivers, an optimal output symbol SNR (OSNR) is achieved by spacing the receivers equal to or greater than the signal coherence length. We model the SPG in decibels as the sum of the noise suppression gain (NSG, equivalent to signal-to-noise enhancement) and the ISI suppression gain (ISG, equivalent to signal-to-ISI enhancement) both expressed in decibels; the latter exploits the spatial diversity and forms the basis for the diversity gain. Data are interpreted using the modeled result as a guide. We discuss a beam-domain processor for sonar arrays, which yields an improved performance at low-input SNR compared to the element-domain processor because of the SNR enhancement from beamforming many sensors.     

自噪声有源抵消器性能分析

降低测量平台处本艇自噪声能够有效地提高被动声纳设备作用距离。文章分析了参考输入中含有目标信号的本艇自噪声有源抵消器的性能。通过理论分析可以看出，随着本艇自噪声有源抵消器参考输入端信噪比的降低，系统输出端信噪比升高。同时。计算机仿真说明，只要参考输入中信号分量较少，自噪声有源抵消器仍然可以达到较好的降噪效果。     

基于四阶累积量的被动测向声纳高分辨力算法研究

利用高阶累积量的阵列扩展和抑制高斯噪声特性,提出1种基于四阶累积量的逆波束形成算法,并通过滑动平均进一步改善了算法。仿真结果和实验数据表明:逆波束形成算法较常规波束形成方法在空间方位分辨力和噪声抑制能力上明显提高,可以更有效地应用于被动测向声纳中。     

舷侧阵CBF和OBF的阵增益比较

以舷侧阵作为研究对象,首先介绍了常规波束形成器(CBF)和最佳波束形成器(OBF)的波束输出信号模型,然后推导了信号+噪声场合下的阵增益表达式,比较了在不同信号频率和不同信号源方向角下,CBF和OBF的阵增益,最后在增加了有指向性的CW干扰后,分析了此场合下的阵增益,并比较了不同的信号频率下,干扰源方向角的变化对两类波束形成器阵增益的影响。     

A reconfigurable real-time interpolation beamformer

This paper describes an architecture for a compact real-time time-delay sonar beamformer. The design is based on a time-domain interpolation concept, and includes shading, interpolation, and time-delay functions for up to 64 sensor data inputs. A one card per beam configuration has been achieved. The digital interpolation technique used improves the effective sampling rate by a factor of 128. The beamformer design features 16-bit arithmetic precision, up to approximately a 5-kHz sampling rate for each of the 64 sensor input channels, and adaptability to any type of array, e.g., linear, circular, or arrays with nonequal interelement spacings. A 31-beam beamformer system, performing more than 620-million arithmetic operations a second, is discussed.     

On Performance of Array Signal Processing

A unified treatment for performance evaluation of various array signal processors is presented. Detection performance is expressed in terms of the parameter of the power-type receiver operating characteristic (ROC) for optimum, beamformer, and null-steerer detectors. Estimation performance is analyzed in terms of the normalized mean-square error (MSE) for minimum mean-square error (MMSE) and maximum likelihood estimators (MLE's) under a varying noise environment. Sensitivity of the detection/estimation performance to the varying internal and directional noise sources is investigated. An interesting inverse relationship is presented between the normalized MSE of the MMSE estimator and the power-type ROC parameter for the optimum detector.