Acoustic sources localization in 3D using multiple spherical arrays

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of multiple sources using sensor arrays has been widely studied in the last few decades, particularly, the spherical harmonic analysis utilizing a spherical array. Both the number of sensors on the aperture and size of the sphere can affect the estimation accuracy dramatically. However, those two factors are conflicted to each other in a single spherical array. In this paper, a multiple spherical arrays structure is proposed to provide an alternative design to the traditional single spherical array for the spherical harmonic decomposition, to obtain better localization performance. The new structure consists of several identical spheres in a given area, and the microphones are placed identically on each sphere. The spherical harmonic analysis algorithm using the new multiple array structure for the problem of multiple acoustic sources localization is presented. Simulation results show that the multiple spherical arrays can provide a more accurate direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for the multiple sources than that of a single spherical array, distinguish several adjacent sources more efficiently, and reduce the number of microphones on each sphere without decreasing its’ estimation accuracy.