Abstract
If a hidden enemy is shooting, there is a threat against soldiers in recent conflicts. This paper aims to improve the localization of a muzzle using microphone array. Gunshot noise can provide information about the location of muzzle with two signals, the muzzle blast from the gun barrel and the projectile sound from the bullet. Two signals arrive to the microphone array with different arrival time and angle. If the arrival angles of the two signals are estimated, distance between sniper location and the microphone array can be calculated by using geometric principles. This method was established in 2003 by Pare. But this method has a limitation that it cannot calculate the distance when the arrival angles of the two signals are same. Also it has an error when the angle difference of arrival is small. In order to overcome this limitation, a new method is proposed that uses the change of characteristic of the projectile sound with respect to vertical distance from the trajectory. The proposed method estimates the distance correctly when the arrival angle of two signals are same, and when the angle difference between two signals is increased, the estimation error increases with respect to the angle. Therefore these two methods can be selected according to the angle difference between two signals to estimate the distance of the muzzle. Below the threshold of the angle difference, the proposed method can be used to estimate distance with smaller error than the existing method. This was demonstrated by shooting tests using actual sniper rifles.