A microphone array configuration for an auditory quadrotor helicopter system

In order to achieve acoustic surveillance by using a multirotor helicopter, a microphone array specially tailored for the helicopter is considered in this paper. Several preliminary experiments were conducted to evaluate how the noise generated by rotors distorted the target sound signal from the view point of sound source localization, and the microphone array was developed based on results of the experiments. The microphone array was also installed on the helicopter, and it was tested to record the human voice during an autonomous waypoint flight in an outdoor environment. Investigating the measured auditory signal, it was shown that the proposed mechanism was capable to be utilized for the acoustic search in the outdoor environment.