ASAP: An Azimuth-Priority Strip-Based Search Approach to Planar Microphone Array DOA Estimation in 3D
Ming Huang, Shuting Xu, Leying Yang, Huanzhang Hu, Yujie Zhang + 4 more
TLDR
ASAP is a novel azimuth-priority strip-based search approach for fast and accurate 3D DOA estimation using planar microphone arrays.
Key contributions
- Accelerates 3D DOA estimation for planar microphone arrays, overcoming SRP-PHAT's computational limits.
- Leverages azimuth's higher reliability with a two-stage, azimuth-priority strip-based search.
- First, performs coarse-to-fine azimuth search; then, refines elevation along great-circle arcs.
Why it matters
Real-time 3D DOA estimation is vital for robotics, but existing methods are too slow for planar arrays. ASAP offers a significant speedup and accuracy, enabling practical deployment on resource-constrained platforms.
Original Abstract
Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is an important task in microphone array processing and many downstream applications. The steered response power with phase transform (SRP-PHAT) method has been widely adopted for DOA estimation in recent years. However, accurate SRP-PHAT estimation in 3D scenarios requires evaluating steering responses over thousands of candidate directions, severely limiting real-time performance on resource-constrained platforms. This challenge becomes even more critical for planar arrays, which are widely used in robotics due to their structural simplicity. Motivated by the fact that azimuth estimation is usually more reliable than elevation estimation for most arrays, we propose ASAP, an azimuth-priority strip-based search approach to planar microphone array DOA estimation in 3D. In the first stage, ASAP performs coarse-to-fine region contraction within azimuthal strips to lock azimuth angles while retaining multiple maxima through spherical caps. In the second stage, it refines elevation along the great-circle arc between two close candidates. Extensive simulations and real-world experiments validate the efficiency and merits of the proposed method over existing approaches.
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