A generic processing structure decomposing the beamforming process of 2-D and 3-D arrays of sensors into sub-sets of coherent processes

This paper details the development of a generic beamforming structures for multidimensional hydrophone sensor arrays with passive and active capabilities. A new approach for the implementation of conventional beamforming for planar, cylindrical and spherical arrays is proposed. This approach is based on decomposing the 2-D and 3-D beamforming process into sets of line and/or circular array beamformers which lead to efficient implementations. Furthermore, this new approach makes the incorporation of adaptive schemes feasible