Use of Genetic Algorithms for Design an FPGA-Integrated Acoustic Camera

• Main Authors: Grubeša, S. (Author), Petošić, A. (Author), Stamać, J. (Author), Suhanek, M. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Acoustic camera; Array systems; beamforming; Beamforming; broadband acoustic camera; Broadband acoustic camera; Broadband acoustics; Cameras; Field programmable gate array system on a chip; Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA); FPGA SoC; genetic algorithm; Genetic algorithms; Integrated circuit design; MATLAB; MEMS; MEMS microphones; Micro-electromechanical system microphone; Microphone arrays; Microphones; Optimisations; Programmable logic controllers; System on a chip; System-on-chip; Systems-on-a-chip
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 The goal of this paper is to design a broadband acoustic camera using micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) microphones. The paper describes how an optimization of the microphone array has been carried out. Furthermore, the final goal of the described optimization is that the gain in the desired direction and the attenuation of side lobes is maximized at a frequency up to 4 kHz. Throughout the research, various shapes of microphone arrays and their directivity patterns have been considered and analyzed using newly developed algorithms implemented in Matlab. A hemisphere algorithm, genetic algorithm, and genetic square algorithm were used to find the optimal position and number of microphones placed on an acoustic camera. The proposed acoustic camera design uses a large number of microphones for high directional selectivity, while a field programmable gate array system on a chip (FPGA SoC) is selected as the processing element of the system. According to the obtained results, three different acoustic camera prototypes were developed. This paper presents simulations of their characteristics, compares the obtained measurements, and discusses the positive and negative sides of each acoustic camera prototype. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.