Algorithms for acoustic localization based on microphone array in service robotics

Abstract This paper deals with the development of acoustic source localization algorithms for service robots working in real conditions. One of the main utilizations of these algorithms in a mobile robot is that the robot can localize a human operator and eventually interact with him/herself by means of verbal commands. The location of a speaking operator is detected with a microphone array based algorithm; localization information is passed to a navigation module which sets up a navigation mission using knowledge of the environment map. In fact, the system we have developed aims at integrating acoustic, odometric and collision sensors with the mobile robot control architecture. Good performance with real acoustic data have been obtained using neural network approach with spectral subtraction and a noise robust voice activity detector. The experiments show that the average absolute localization error is about 40 cm at 0 dB and about 10 cm at 10 dB of SNR for the named localization. Experimental results describing mobile robot performance in a talker following task are reported.

[1]  Erann Gat,et al.  Experiences with an architecture for intelligent, reactive agents , 1997, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[2]  Rodney A. Brooks,et al.  A Robust Layered Control Syste For A Mobile Robot , 2022 .

[3]  Mark Kahrs,et al.  Loudspeaker parameter measurement in reverberant environments , 1996 .

[4]  Maurizio Omologo,et al.  Acoustic event localization using a crosspower-spectrum phase based technique , 1994, Proceedings of ICASSP '94. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

[5]  D. D. Greenwood,et al.  Critical bandwidth and consonance in relation to cochlear frequency-position coordinates , 1991, Hearing Research.

[6]  Michael S. Brandstein,et al.  A closed-form method for finding source locations from microphone-array time-decay estimates , 1995, 1995 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.

[7]  Tucker R. Balch,et al.  AuRA: principles and practice in review , 1997, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[8]  James L. Flanagan,et al.  Estimation of wavefront arrival delay for acoustical signals using the cross‐power spectrum phase technique , 1996 .

[9]  Jie Huang,et al.  A model-based sound localization system and its application to robot navigation , 1999, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[10]  Fatma Ayhan Sakarya,et al.  A unified neural-network-based speaker localization technique , 2000, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks Learn. Syst..

[11]  Simon Haykin,et al.  Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation , 1998 .

[12]  Scott E. Fahlman,et al.  An empirical study of learning speed in back-propagation networks , 1988 .

[13]  Parham Aarabi,et al.  Robust sound localization using multi-source audiovisual information fusion , 2001, Inf. Fusion.

[14]  Harvey F. Silverman,et al.  A two-stage algorithm for determining talker location from linear microphone array data , 1992 .

[15]  S. Boll,et al.  Suppression of acoustic noise in speech using spectral subtraction , 1979 .

[16]  Douglas E. Sturim,et al.  Tracking multiple talkers using microphone-array measurements , 1997, 1997 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.

[17]  S. Haykin,et al.  Adaptive Filter Theory , 1986 .

[18]  Enzo Mumolo,et al.  Algorithms and architectures for acoustic localization based on microphone array in service robotics , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[19]  Michael S. Brandstein,et al.  A practical methodology for speech source localization with microphone arrays , 1997, Comput. Speech Lang..

[20]  Toshio Tsuji,et al.  A Dynamical Model for the Generation of Curved Trajectories , 1993 .

[21]  Michael S. Brandstein,et al.  A practical time-delay estimator for localizing speech sources with a microphone array , 1995, Comput. Speech Lang..

[22]  R. McAulay,et al.  Speech enhancement using a soft-decision noise suppression filter , 1980 .

[23]  Jean Paul Haton,et al.  Far field array processing with neural networks , 1994, Proceedings of ICASSP '94. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

[24]  Maurizio Omologo,et al.  Acoustic source location in noisy and reverberant environment using CSP analysis , 1996, 1996 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Conference Proceedings.

[25]  Martin A. Riedmiller,et al.  A direct adaptive method for faster backpropagation learning: the RPROP algorithm , 1993, IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks.

[26]  James L. Flanagan,et al.  A DSP implementation of source location using microphone arrays. , 1996 .

[27]  Brigitte Colnet,et al.  Source localisation with recurrent neural networks , 1996, 1996 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Conference Proceedings.

[28]  Brigitte Colnet,et al.  Bearing estimation with time-delay neural networks , 1995, 1995 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.

[29]  G. Carter,et al.  The generalized correlation method for estimation of time delay , 1976 .