Acoustic positioning system for 3D localization of sound sources based on the Time of Arrival of a signal for a low-cost system

The localization of sound sources has received increasing interest over the last decades, given its wide range of applications. The triangulation method using the Time of Arrival (ToA) of a signal has shown to be useful and easy-to-use and, at the same time, provides accurate results. In this work, the acoustic trilateration method is applied in experimental measures to study and demonstrate its precision in air. Firstly, the method is tested in an anechoic chamber (low reverberant environment) demonstrating its functionality and accuracy. The next step has been the application of the method by using a low-cost system to demonstrate how a non-anechoic environment affects the accuracy of the localization. The detection of the received signal is implemented using a cross-correlation method in the time domain for both cases. Furthermore, the influence of the number and positions of the receivers that are used for this process in the accuracy of the results is also studied.