Uncertainty Tolerance in Underwater Acoustic Signal Processing

Because of the difficulties in accurately characterizing the statistical behavior of underwater acoustic channels, tolerance to uncertain statistical modeling is an important property for underwater acoustic signal processing procedures to possess. This paper provides an overview of a number of techniques developed in recent years that can be applied to provide uncertainty tolerance in underwater signal processing applications. In addition to a discussion of general concepts of uncertainty tolerance, specific methods for attaining tolerance to uncertainty in temporal/spatial statistics for procedures such as Wiener and matched filtering, time-delay estimation, sonar system design, and signal prediction are reviewed. Tolerance to uncertainty in amplitude statistics is also a key issue in underwater channels, and techniques for achieving this goal are discussed in the contexts of signal estimation, identification, and detection procedures.