Retrofit of a conventional beamforming array with a rotating sensor arm for multireference, continuous-scan beamforming

Continuous-scan beamforming (CSBF) is a novel approach that improves array performance without increasing the physical number of sensors by employing virtual sensors. Previous CSBF demonstrations showed the capability to perform high-resolution mapping of acoustic sources and to identify a source level difference of approximately 18 dB, a capability not possible using conventional beamforming with an equal sensor budget. ATA collaborated with GFaI Tech GmbH and Polytec Inc. to investigate integration of a CSBF rotating sensor arm into a GFaI commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) beamforming array. ATA designed and manufactured in-house a rotating-arm array to demonstrate integration of CSBF into an existing unmodified stationary-microphone array platform and improved array performance with CSBF by adding only a handful of sensors.