Tracking of Acoustic Sources Using Random Set Theory

In a passive acoustical tracking, sources are not expected to cooperate with the system. They may enter and leave the sensing area at various speed and directions. They may even stop vocalizing at any time. The standard solution divides this problem into two steps: estimating the number of sources, followed by tracking their geo-kinematic states. Instead, we propose using the random set theory to jointly estimate both the number of sources and their geo-kinematic states. The random set theory is a mathematical framework that gives a complete picture of the joint estimation problem. With this framework, one can analytically develop a tracking system that is robust against node failures or dynamic multiple source scenario. To cover the common wireless sensing deployment strategy, we investigate two topologies: a uniform grid, and a distributed sub-array. With each topology, we validate the proposed tracking system solution with simulations. For the distributed sub-array topology, we use results from a controlled field experiment and found this approach to be both practical and robust.