Delay-and-sum beamforming for direction of arrival estimation applied to gunshot acoustics

António L. L. Ramos; Sverre Holm; Sigmund Gudvangen; Ragnvald Otterlei

doi:10.1117/12.886833

2 June 2011 Delay-and-sum beamforming for direction of arrival estimation applied to gunshot acoustics

António L. L. Ramos, Sverre Holm, Sigmund Gudvangen, Ragnvald Otterlei

Proceedings Volume 8019, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense X; 80190U (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.886833
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Sniper positioning systems described in the literature use a two-step algorithm to estimate the sniper's location. First, the shockwave and the muzzle blast acoustic signatures must be detected and recognized, followed by an estimation of their respective direction-of-arrival (DOA). Second, the actual sniper's position is calculated based on the estimated DOA via an iterative algorithm that varies from system to system. The overall performance of such a system, however, is highly compromised when the first step is not carried out successfully. Currently available systems rely on a simple calculation of differences of time-of-arrival to estimate angles-of-arrival. This approach, however, lacks robustness by not taking full advantage of the array of sensors. This paper shows how the delay-and-sum beamforming technique can be applied to estimate the DOA for both the shockwave and the muzzle blast. The method has the twofold advantage of 1) adding an array gain of 10 logM, i.e., an increased SNR of 6 dB for a 4-microphone array, which is equivalent to doubling the detection range assuming free-field propagation; and 2) offering improved robustness in handling single- and multi-shots events as well as reflections by taking advantage of the spatial filtering capability.

Citation Download Citation

António L. L. Ramos, Sverre Holm, Sigmund Gudvangen, and Ragnvald Otterlei "Delay-and-sum beamforming for direction of arrival estimation applied to gunshot acoustics", Proc. SPIE 8019, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense X, 80190U (2 June 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.886833

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