Vector Hydrophone Based DOA Estimation Method for Shallow Sea Broadband Sound Sources

To address the issue of interference caused by multipath characteristics in the shallow sea channel and improve the accuracy of direction estimation for broadband pulse signals, this paper proposes an improved algorithm that effectively suppresses interference and enhances the accuracy of direction estimation. Building upon the estimation method of complex acoustic intensity for target estimation, the method first applies a Warping transform to the received signals. It then separates and extracts the time-domain signals of each order under the normal mode conditions, which are passed through a vector hydrophone to obtain the complex acoustic intensity in the frequency domain. Finally, direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is performed on the obtained complex acoustic intensities, and the final azimuth is obtained through weighted summation. In comparison to conventional methods based on complex acoustic intensity, the proposed method effectively suppresses interference caused by multipath characteristics and improves the accuracy of DOA estimation. The accuracy and validity of the proposed method are verified through simulations and experimental data.