Orientation method of underwater target based on a rotating dual-element array

An orientation method of underwater target is proposed through rotating a dual-hydrophone array. By rotating the array, the Doppler effect of target signal is actively generated. The target orientation can be achieved by combining the Doppler information and the Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) of the target radiation sound. By setting proper objective function, orientation of target is decided by optimally matching the two signals after time delay and Doppler compensation. The simulation results in the scenario show that the proposed method has good orientation accuracy for targets in all directions. The average orientation error is less than 1° for 100 random targets distributed at distance of 1000 m. In comparison with conventional orientation methods on TDOA, the proposed method shows much higher accuracy and robustness. The experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed method in practical application. © 2021 Acta Acustica.