Comparison of linear and nonlinear processing with acoustic vector sensors

Abstract

Towed arrays of vector sensors are currently being employed in a variety of naval applications. The use of acoustic vector sensors, which measure the acoustic pressure and three orthogonal axes of associated particle motion, are of interest because of the signal gain and additional directionality achievable. The majority of analysis performed on vector sensor arrays has involved the advantages of conventional (linear) standard cardioid beamform processing. In this work, we shall explore the possible advantages of nonstandard linear processing techniques as well as new nonlinear (but non-adaptive) beamforming processors. The performance of these various beamforming methods will be examined using standard FFT processing of simulated data from a parabolic equation model in the band of 1250 - 1750 Hz, for both high and low SNR targets, in an isospeed profile shallow water environment.