Effect of several factors on target localization of arbitrary planar three-element acoustic array

The effect of some factors, such as time delay estimation error, array aperture, and distance error between acoustic array elements, on the accuracy of target location was studied. The formula for calculating the target position was deduced based on the acoustic time delay estimation hyperbolic localization technology. Then, the relation of the target location error with the time delay estimation error, the aperture of sensor array and the error of distance between sensors was analyzed, and the target location error was calculated. The results show that the big pore arrays can be used significantly to reduce the position error under the same original error conditions. To ensure the target location error be less than 1 meter and without consideration of other error conditions, the time delay error Δt must be less than 9.39 ns for the array element space d=0.3 m, Δt<2.7 μs for d=5 meters, and Δt<0.36 ms for d=50 meters. Without consideration of other error conditions, the array element spacing error Δx must be less than 3.1 μm for d=0.3 meters, Δx<1.1 mm for d=5 meters, and Δx<0.23 m for d=50 meters.