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Product beamforming and nested array in tandem for enhanced sonar performance

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Abstract

High-performance sonar systems mostly combine a large sensor array and an efficient beamformer for enhancing the overall detection capabilities and estimation of Direction of Arrival (DoA) of the acoustic signal released from underwater targets in the ocean. The array geometry and the number of elements have direct influences on the beam width and the signal to noise ratio but increase the complexity in terms of hardware and computational requirement. Even when such hardware complexities are accommodated in complex systems, the performance of such systems is often par below its expected level because of the limitations of the beamformer. The efficacy of the beamforming lies in obtaining a narrow beamwidth for the main lobe with minimum sidelobe levels (SLL) while keeping the element utilization factor as maximum as possible. This in turn demands proper optimization over array parameters and beamforming methods. Several optimization techniques have been established over the years and practised in a variety of sonar systems. Statistical array processing with nested and sparse array concepts with virtual elements offer effective solutions to these challenges. This article proposes an approach comprising a novel product beamforming concept that uses the idea of destructive interference in tandem with the nested array concept to demonstrate that better sonar performance can be achieved. The former helps to minimize the SLL without affecting the veracity of the main lobe, while the latter helps to reduce the requirement of a large number of sensors and thereby reduce the system complexity.

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Availability of data and material

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. However, any datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable requests.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Samir V. Kamat, Director General of Naval Systems and Materials, DRDO, Ministry of Defence for the support and permission to publish the paper in the Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing Journal.

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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi, Kerala, 682021, India

    S. Vijayan Pillai, T. Santhanakrishnan, N. Suresh Kumar & R. Rajesh

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  1. S. Vijayan Pillai
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  2. T. Santhanakrishnan
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  3. N. Suresh Kumar
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  4. R. Rajesh
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Contributions

S. Vijayan Pillai and T. Santhanakrishnan conceived the research idea. S. Vijayan Pillai and T. Santhanakrishnan planned and designed the methodology. S. Vijayan Pillai and N. Suresh Kumar designed the required mathematics and wrote the simulation algorithms in MATLAB. T. Santhanakrishnan and R. Rajesh coordinated the research and conceived the ocean applications. T. Santhanakrishnan and N. Suresh Kumar carried out the data analysis. T. Santhanakrishnan wrote the manuscript with share contributions from S. Vijayan Pillai, N. Suresh Kumar and R. Rajesh. All the authors contributed to the manuscript, reviewed and have approved the submission of the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to T. Santhanakrishnan.

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Pillai, S.V., Santhanakrishnan, T., Kumar, N.S. et al. Product beamforming and nested array in tandem for enhanced sonar performance. Multidim Syst Sign Process 33, 879–898 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11045-022-00825-z

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