Active control of multi-tonal noise with reference generator based on on-line frequency estimation

Abstract

In this paper, a novel active noise control (ANC) structure with a frequency estimator is proposed for systems with multi-tonal noise. The conventional feedforward ANC algorithms need a measured reference signal to calculate the gradient of the squared error and filter coefficients. For ANC systems applied to aircraft or passenger ships, which reference signals are usually measured are so far from seats where engines from the main part of controllers is placed that the scheme might be difficult to implement or very costly. Feedback ANC algorithms which do not require a measure of reference signals, use error signals alone to update the filter and are usually sensitive to measurement noise and unexpected transient noise such as a sneeze, clapping of hands and so on. The proposed algorithm, which estimates frequencies of the multi-tonal noise in real time using adaptive notch filter (ANF), improves convergence rate, threshold SNR and computational efficiency compared with the conventional ones. The reference signal needed for the feedforward control is not measured directly, but is generated with the estimated frequencies. It has a strong similarity to the conventional IMC-based feedback control because the reference is generated from the error signal in both cases. The proposed ANC algorithm is compared with the conventional IMC-based feedback control algorithm. Cascade ANF, which has a low computational burden, is used to implement the ANC system in real time. Experiments for verifying efficacy of the proposed algorithm are carried out in the laboratory. (C) 1999 Academic Press.