Development and application of MVDR adaptive beamforming technique in underwater acoustic

The azimuth resolution and anti-interference capability of high-resolution beamformer are better than conventional beamformer. It can improve the output SINR(signal to interference plus noise ratio) of receive array, and so the sonar detection performance can be enhanced. Compared with MUSIC and ESPRIT, the true signal power can be given by MVDR(Minimum Variance Distortionless Response) beamformer, and meanwhile the time waveform series of beam can be given for post processing. So MVDR is developed quickly and researched deeply in acoustic array processing. In this paper, the development of high-resolution MVDR beamforming technique for underwater acoustic array is reviewed. The research hotspots and new achievements of MVDR are discussed, including wideband processing, robustness, target motion compensation and decorrelation. Furthermore, various application prospects of MVDR in acoustic array processing are given.