For a sensor array, signal combining is an attractive technique for improving the reception of weak signals. One of well-known signal combining methods is SUMPLE. Moreover, time delay synchronization between various sensors should be accomplished before signal combining.

In practical application, the combining performance of a sensor array will decrease, if a sensor in the array fails. Therefore, WANG Leiou and his team from the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a gain factor controlled SUMPLE system, a unified system based on SUMPLE and explicit time delay and gain estimator (ETDGE).

Researchers analyzed the mathematical model and performance of a failed sensor in an array. As a result, it can be seen that the weight amplitude of the failed sensor has an influence on the overall combining performance of an array. The combining performance of an array will decrease, when the weight amplitude of the failed sensor is not compensated.

Then, a unified system based on SUMPLE and ETDGE was proposed. In this system, the gain factor of ETDGE acted as the failure detection criterion to track the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each sensor. A failed sensor in the array was detected if a gain factor fell below a given threshold.

Simulation results showed that the system can effectively find the failed sensor, and the weight amplitude of the failed sensor can be automatically compensated. In addition, there is no longer need for extra computation work.

Reference：

WANG Leiou, WANG Donghui. A Gain Factor Controlled SUMPLE Algorithm and System. 2017 IEEE 12th International Conference on ASICON （October 2017）. DOI: 10.1109/ASICON.2017.8252442.

Contact:

WANG Rongquan

Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China

Email: wangrongquan@mail.ioa.ac.cn