Performance enhancement of target tracking for an underwater vehicle using synthetic sensor technique

We propose the synthesis technique that fewer sensors which are located at the head of the underwater vehicle moving toward a target have the same effect like more sensors in detecting the sound source. We verify the result through simulation. The sensors are positioned in the shape of a cross at the head of the underwater vehicle, making it easy to detect and track a target. With this technique it is possible to process the arriving signal while keeping its coherence. The results depend on the number of overlapped sensors and the method of synthesis. We overlapped the sensors 62% and used 5 sensors in the synthesis, we decreased the sidelobe by about -10 dB and the beamwidth by 25% or so.