Implementation of robust virtual sensing algorithm in active noise control to improve silence zone

Abstract

Active noise control (ANC) is a successful technique to reduce unwanted noise based on the superposition principle. In a conventional ANC system, the extent of unwanted noise can be attenuated at the error microphone location, thus making a silent zone at the desired location. However, in certain situations, it is impossible to place the error microphone at the desired location. In that case, the error microphone cannot assure adequate noise suppression at the desired location. To overcome that, the virtual sensing technique (VST) has been implemented in ANC to shift the zone of silence to the desired position. This paper proposes a supplemental filter in VST to avoid interference issues between secondary and virtual paths..In the virtual ANC, the supplemental filter H provides the required information to measure optimal noise control filter and also increases noise reduction in the ANC system at the virtual location. A Real-Time Simulink model is designed for the proposed virtual sensing ANC and evaluate its efficiency. The computer simulation findings showed that the ANC system performance with the proposed virtual sensing method had good noise reduction at the virtual location compared to the physical location. The proposed supplemental filter preserves reasonable noise reduction efficiency in the ANC system if the physical microphone is positioned far from the location of the silence zone.