Abstract: The frequency invariant beamformer (FIB) has important applications in wideband array signal processing. Conventional FIB design approaches are usually proposed without considering the mismatches in microphone array characteristic, which leads to the performance of the FIBs degrading in practical applications. Therefore, a robust steerable frequency invariant beamformer design approach based on spatial response variation constrained least squares (SRV-CLS) was proposed. It combined the SRV-CLS FIB design approach with classical robust beamforming algorithm, and added the microphone characteristics as robust favor in the cost function. The proposed approach could work well in the presence of microphone mismatches, ensured the frequency invariant of the beamformers in the operating band, and is applicable to arbitrary main lobe width and array geometries.

Key words: beamforming, frequency invariance, robustness, constrained least squares