Linearized two-hydrophone localization of a pulsed acoustic source in the presence of refraction: Theory and simulations

Enhanced Pulsed-Source Localization with 3 Hydrophones: Uncertainty Estimates

The uncertainty behavior of an enhanced three-dimensional (3D) localization scheme for pulsed sources based on relative travel times at a large-aperture three-hydrophone array is studied. The localization scheme is an extension of a two-hydrophone localization approach based on time differences between direct and surface-reflected arrivals, an approach with significant advantages, but also drawbacks, such as left-right ambiguity, high range/depth uncertainties for broadside sources, and high bearing uncertainties for endfire sources. These drawbacks can be removed by adding a third hydrophone. The 3D localization problem is separated into two, a range/depth estimation problem, for which only the hydrophone depths are needed, and a bearing estimation problem, if the hydrophone geometry in the horizontal is known as well. The refraction of acoustic paths is taken into account using ray theory. The condition for existence of surface-reflected arrivals can be relaxed by considering arrivals with an upper turning point, allowing for localization at longer ranges. A Bayesian framework is adopted, allowing for the estimation of localization uncertainties. Uncertainty estimates are obtained through analytic predictions and simulations and they are compared against two-hydrophone localization uncertainties as well as against two-dimensional localization that is based on direct arrivals.

Impulse source localization in an urban environment: Time reversal versus time matching

This study investigates two approaches for localizing an impulse sound source with distributed sensors in an urban environment under controlled processing time. In both approaches, the numerical model used for calculating the sound propagation is a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) model. The simulations are drastically accelerated by restricting to the lower frequencies of the impulse signals and are evaluated against in situ measurements. The first tested localization technique relies on the time reversal of the measurements with the model. In the second technique, the source is localized by matching the observed differences in the first times of arrival of the signals to those obtained from a pre-defined database of simulations with known source positions. The localization performance is physically investigated on the basis of the measurements, considering two source positions and all possible combinations from 5 to 15 microphones. The time matching localization attains an accuracy of 10 m, which is targeted in this study, in the vast majority of the configurations. In comparison, the time reversal localization is affected by the weakness of contributions from sensors masked and distant from the source. Practical requirements are also discussed, such as real-time constraints, hardware and description of the urban environment.