Performance comparison of FFT-based and GCC-PHAT time delay estimation schemes for target azimuth angle estimation in a passive SONAR array

摘要

Target object detection and azimuth angle estimation are very important issues in the passive SONAR array systems. However, in coastal areas due to cost and efficiency issues, there are cases where a proximity sensor with relatively low sensitivity to reception is employed than a high-performance array sensor. In these cases, it is desirable to use low-complexity signal processing techniques for efficiently exploiting received signals. In this paper, we compare the performance of GCC-PHAT and low-complexity FFT-based time delay estimation techniques to efficiently estimate the target azimuth angle in a passive SONAR array. It is observed that the performance of the time delay estimation methods is dependent upon the underwater environment.