System-wide Dynamic Modelling and Performance Metrics of an Acoustic Exponential Detector

Abstract

Multiple passive acoustic detectors exist for under/above-water applications. Implementations involving exponential filters have also been tested. However, the literature provides little guidance about their tuning, which may be non-intuitive. This is especially true when considering how much dynamical features such filters may introduce. To alleviate this shortcoming, this publication reviews the key configuration parameters of such detectors and it proposes the development of new global, that is system-wide, and dynamical performance metrics meant to facilitate their overall tuning. Event though theoretical derivations and the computation of new global dynamical metrics are presented, this publication remains focused on practical aspects. Of interest to practitioners, the impact of configuration parameters is studied and the limitation of Receiver Operational Curves is illustrated. Many examples demonstrate how the proposed closed-form expressions adequately approximate performance based on simulated and real data. Also, a thorough summary of the main results and their implications is provided. Of interest for future work, results presented here indicate the necessity for optimization among many performance metrics and configuration parameters.