Low complexity MIMO sonar imaging using a virtual sparse linear array

A multiple-input multiple-output（MIMO） sonar can synthesize a large-aperture virtual uniform linear array（ULA） from a small number of physical elements. However, the large aperture is obtained at the cost of a great number of matched filters with much heavy computation load. To reduce the computation load, a MIMO sonar imaging method using a virtual sparse linear array（SLA） is proposed, which contains the offline and online processing. In the offline processing, the virtual ULA of the MIMO sonar is thinned to a virtual SLA by the simulated annealing algorithm, and matched filters corresponding to inactive virtual elements are removed. In the online processing, outputs of matched filters corresponding to active elements are collected for further multibeam processing and hence, the number of matched filters in the echo processing procedure is effectively reduced. Numerical simulations show that the proposed method can reduce the computation load effectively while obtaining a similar imaging performance as the traditional method.

Modified GA Optimization of Linear Sparse Array

With a goal to optimize the element positions to reduce the peak sidelobe level （PSLL） of the array pattern, a modified real Genetic Algorithms （MGA） for the synthesis of sparse linear arrays is described. The multiple optimization constrains include the number of elements, the aperture and the minimum element spacing. The advanced new approach reduces the size of the searching area of GA by means of indirect description of chromosome and avoids infeasible solution during the optimization process by designing the new genetic operators. The elementary steps of MGA are presented. The simulated results confirm the great efficiency and the robustness of this algorithm.

Optimized simulated annealing algorithm for thinning and weighting large planar arrays

This paper proposes an optimized simulated annealing(SA) algorithm for thinning and weighting large planar arrays in 3D underwater sonar imaging systems.The optimized algorithm has been developed for use in designing a 2D planar array(a rectangular grid with a circular boundary) with a fixed side-lobe peak and a fixed current taper ratio under a narrow-band excitation.Four extensions of the SA algorithm and the procedure for the optimized SA algorithm are described.Two examples of planar arrays are used to assess the efficiency of the optimized method.The proposed method achieves a similar beam pattern performance with fewer active transducers and faster convergence ability than previous SA algorithms.