Time Delay Estimation of Target Echo Signal Based on Multi-bright Spot Echoes

Abstract

Accurate time delay estimation of target echo signals is a critical component of underwater target localization. In active sonar systems, echo signal processing is vulnerable to the effects of reverberation and noise in the maritime environment. This paper proposes a novel method for estimating target time delay using multi-bright spot echoes, assuming the target’s size and depth are known. Aiming to effectively enhance the extraction of geometric features from the target echoes and mitigate the impact of reverberation and noise, the proposed approach employs the fractional order Fourier transform-frequency sliced wavelet transform to extract multi-bright spot echoes. Using the highlighting model theory and the target size information, an observation matrix is constructed to represent multi-angle incident signals and obtain the theoretical scattered echo signals from different angles. Aiming to accurately estimate the target’s time delay, waveform similarity coefficients and mean square error values between the theoretical return signals and received signals are computed across various incident angles and time delays. Simulation results show that, compared to the conventional matched filter, the proposed algorithm reduces the relative error by 65.9%–91.5% at a signal-tonoise ratio of -25 dB, and by 66.7%–88.9% at a signal-to-reverberation ratio of -10 dB. This algorithm provides a new approach for the precise localization of submerged targets in shallow water environments.

Keywords

Multi-bright spot echoes / Time-delay estimation; Target echo signal / Frequency sliced wavelet transform / Fractional order fourier transform

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RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature