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Main Authors: Tripathi, Rajeshwar, Kumar, Sandeep, Aggarwal, Monika, Kundu, Neel Kanth
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04839
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author Tripathi, Rajeshwar
Kumar, Sandeep
Aggarwal, Monika
Kundu, Neel Kanth
author_facet Tripathi, Rajeshwar
Kumar, Sandeep
Aggarwal, Monika
Kundu, Neel Kanth
contents This study presents a bio inspired signal processing framework for robust Underwater Acoustic Target Recognition (UATR). The latest state of the art methods often fail to resolve dense low frequency harmonic structures in vessel propulsion signals under high noise conditions, which is addressed by the proposed framework using a biologically inspired Gammatone filter bank that emulates the cochlea nonlinear frequency selectivity. By distributing filters according to the Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth (ERB) scale, the framework achieves a high fidelity representation of engine radiated tonals while effectively suppressing isotropic ambient interference. The resulting Cochleagram features are processed by a lightweight, custom designed Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that leverages large receptive fields to integrate spectral-temporal continuities. Experimental results on the VTUAD dataset demonstrate a state of the art classification accuracy of 98.41%, outperforming Continuous Wavelet Transform and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients baselines by 3.5% and 7.7% respectively. Furthermore, the framework achieves an inference latency of only 0.77 ms and a 0.971 Cohen Kappa score, validating its efficacy for real time deployment on autonomous, low-power sonar hardware.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_04839
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hearing the Ocean: Bio-inspired Gammatone-CNN framework for Robust Underwater Acoustic Target Classification
Tripathi, Rajeshwar
Kumar, Sandeep
Aggarwal, Monika
Kundu, Neel Kanth
Sound
This study presents a bio inspired signal processing framework for robust Underwater Acoustic Target Recognition (UATR). The latest state of the art methods often fail to resolve dense low frequency harmonic structures in vessel propulsion signals under high noise conditions, which is addressed by the proposed framework using a biologically inspired Gammatone filter bank that emulates the cochlea nonlinear frequency selectivity. By distributing filters according to the Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth (ERB) scale, the framework achieves a high fidelity representation of engine radiated tonals while effectively suppressing isotropic ambient interference. The resulting Cochleagram features are processed by a lightweight, custom designed Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that leverages large receptive fields to integrate spectral-temporal continuities. Experimental results on the VTUAD dataset demonstrate a state of the art classification accuracy of 98.41%, outperforming Continuous Wavelet Transform and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients baselines by 3.5% and 7.7% respectively. Furthermore, the framework achieves an inference latency of only 0.77 ms and a 0.971 Cohen Kappa score, validating its efficacy for real time deployment on autonomous, low-power sonar hardware.
title Hearing the Ocean: Bio-inspired Gammatone-CNN framework for Robust Underwater Acoustic Target Classification
topic Sound
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04839