A multiple error LMS algorithm and its application to the active control of sound and vibration

An algorithm is presented to adapt the coefficients of an array of FIR filters, whose outputs are linearly coupled to another array of error detection points, so that the sum of all the mean square error signals is minimized. The algorithm uses the instantaneous gradient of the total error, and for a single filter and error reduces to the "filtered x LMS" algorithm. The application of this algorithm to active sound and vibration control is discussed, by which suitably driven secondary sources are used to reduce the levels of acoustic or vibrational fields by minimizing the sum of the squares of a number of error sensor signals. A practical implementation of the algorithm is presented for the active control of sound at a single frequency. The algorithm converges on a timescale comparable to the response time of the system to be controlled, and is found to be very robust. If the pure tone reference signal is synchronously sampled, it is found that the behavior of the adaptive system can be completely described by a matrix of linear, time invariant, transfer functions. This is used to explain the behavior observed in simulations of a simplified single input, single output adaptive system, which retains many of the properties of the multichannel algorithm.