Design of Pseudo-Spherical Microphone Array with Extended Frequency Range for Robot Audition

V. Tourbabin and B. Rafaely (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Jahrestagung für Akustik DAGA 2016, Aachen, Germany, March 14-17, 2016
[showhide type=”Abstract”] Abstract: Microphone arrays constitute the front end for sound acquisition in the auditory system of most humanoid robots. Their design and performance therefore play a central role in robot audition. Although some previous studies are concerned with the optimization of microphone placement for robot audition, spatial aliasing, constituting a major challenge in array design, has not been studied extensively for this application. Spatial aliasing is approached in this paper using a spherical harmonics (SH) framework. A method for microphone positioning that extends the aliasing-free frequency range of low SH orders is developed, and validated by simulation for the design of a microphone array on the head of the humanoid NAO. Aliasing level is significantly reduced compared to the efficient nearly-uniform microphone distribution. The proposed method was employed in the implementation of a 12-microphone array for NAO. [/showhide]
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Paper: Paper_DAGA_2016_BGU_VT