Abstract

Sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) has emerged as a fast and competitive method to perform sparse processing. The SBL algorithm, which is developed using a Bayesian framework, iteratively solves a non-convex optimization problem using fixed point updates. It provides comparable performance and is significantly faster than convex optimization techniques used in sparse processing. We propose a multi-dictionary SBL algorithm that simultaneously can process observations generated by different underlying dictionaries sharing the same sparsity profile. Two algorithms are proposed and corresponding fixed point update equations are derived. Noise variances are estimated using stochastic maximum likelihood. The multi-dictionary SBL has many practical applications. We demonstrate this using direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. The first example uses the proposed multi-dictionary SBL to process multi …

Abstract

Sparse arrays such as co-prime and nested arrays can identify more sources than the number of sensors. This is because their difference co-arrays contain a uniformly spaced virtual array with more elements than the number of sensors in the array. In this paper we demonstrate this using two dimensional co-prime and nested sparse arrays combined with sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) for 2D beamforming in azimuth and elevation. SBL can directly process the sparse array data and significantly outperform conventional beam-forming and MUSIC as seen from simulations.

Abstract

Using simulations and data, we localize a quiet source in the presence of an interferer. The SWellEx-96 Event S59 consists of a submerged source towed along an isobath over a 65 min duration with an interferer traversing the source track. This range independent, multi-frequency scenario includes mismatch, non-stationary noise, and operational uncertainty. Mismatch is defined as a misalignment between the actual source field observed at the array and the modeled replica vector. The noise process changes likely with time. This is modelled as a heteroscedastic Gaussian process, meaning that the noise variance is non-stationary across snapshots. Sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) has been applied previously to the matched field processing application [Gemba et al, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 141:3411-3420, 2017]. Results demonstrate that SBL exhibits desirable robustness properties and improved localization …

Abstract

Sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) has been used to obtain source direction-of-arrivals (DoAs) from uniform linear array (ULA) data. The maximum number of sources that can be resolved using a ULA is limited by the number of sensors in the array. It is known that sparse linear arrays such as co-prime and nested arrays can resolve more sources than the number of sensors. In this paper we demonstrate this using SBL. We compute the mean squared error in source power estimation as various parameters are varied.

Abstract

The paper considers direction of arrival (DOA) estimation from long-term observations in a noisy environment. In such an environment the noise source might evolve, causing the stationary models to fail. Therefore a heteroscedastic Gaussian noise model is introduced where the variance can vary across observations and sensors. The source amplitudes are assumed independent zero-mean complex Gaussian distributed with unknown variances (i.e. the source powers), leading to stochastic maximum likelihood (ML) DOA estimation. The DOAs of plane waves are estimated from multi-snapshot sensor array data using sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) where the noise is estimated across both sensors and snapshots. Simulations demonstrate that taking the heteroscedastic noise into account improves DOA estimation.