Enhance signal of underwater locator beacon by adaptive filter and simulation received signal

Searching for and recovering a flight recorder at sea is a complex and demanding task. Once the flight recorder is submerged, the underwater locator beacon (ULB) mounted on it will activate. In this study, we developed an algorithm combining an adaptive filter and a simulated received signal to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), thereby increasing the probability of detecting the ULB signal. The experiment was taken place off the coast of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, with a ship towing an array and circling a prepositioned ULB to collect underwater acoustic data. The ULB signal was significantly amplified using the proposed algorithm. This research offers a pre-processing technique for ULB signal enhancement, demonstrating its applicability in real-world scenarios.