Robust Localization and Tracking of Simultaneous Abstract Moving Sound Sources Using Beamforming and Particle Filtering

Mobile robots in real-life settings would benefit from being able to localize and track sound sources. Such a capability can help localizing a person or an interesting event in the en-vironment, and also provides enhanced processing for other capabilities such as speech recognition. To give this capability to a robot, the challenge is not only to localize simulta-neous sound sources, but to track them over time. In this paper we propose a robust sound source localization and tracking method using an array of eight microphones. The method is based on a frequency-domain implementation of a steered beamformer along with a par-ticle filter-based tracking algorithm. Results show that a mobile robot can localize and track in real-time multiple moving sources of different types over a range of 7 meters. These new capabilities allow a mobile robot to interact using more natural means with people in real life settings. Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science May 2, 2006