Sensitivity analysis of estimating bullet trajectories using ballistic shock wave measurements.
Wm. Garth Frazier · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2011
Estimation of the trajectory of supersonic projectiles using measurements of the shock cone is subject to several sources of measurement error as well as array geometry and miss distance. The microphone position measurement errors are especially important to consider in the case of a moving array. This investigation examines the sensitivity of the solution to these errors and parameters of the array geometry. Cramer–Rao bound analysis is performed in addition to Monte Carlo simulations using maximum likelihood estimation and a more computationally efficient alternative estimator. The results indicate that for several combinations of array geometry and microphone location error, solutions in practical applications can be of very limited value.