Aircraft class identification based on take-off noise signal segmentation in time

Aircraft noise is one of the most uncomfortable kinds of sounds. That is why many organizations have addressed this problem through noise contours around airports, for which they use the aircraft type as the key element. This paper presents a new computational model to identify the aircraft class with a better performance, because it introduces the take-off noise signal segmentation in time. A method for signal segmentation into four segments was created. The aircraft noise patterns are extracted using an LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) based technique and the classification is made combining the output of four parallel MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) neural networks, one for each segment. The individual accuracy of each network was improved using a wrapper feature selection method, increasing the model effectiveness with a lower computational cost. The aircraft are grouped into classes depending on the installed engine type. The model works with 13 aircraft categories with an identification level above 85% in real environments.

•A new computational model for aircraft class identification is proposed.•The model is based on take-off noise signal segmentation in time.•Feature extraction using a LPC based technique.•Improved pattern recognition by means of four parallel MLP neural networks.•Aid for airport noise monitoring.