Aiming at the problem that the covariance matrix includes the desired signal and the signal steer vector mismatches will degrade the beamforming performance, an effective robust adaptive beamforming (RAB) approach is presented in this paper based on a residual convolutional neural network (RAB-RCNN). In the presented method, the RAB-RCNN model is designed by introducing a residual unit, which can extract the deeper features from the signal sample covariance matrix. Residual noise elimination and interferences power estimation are utilized to reconstruct the desired signal covariance matrix, and correct the mismatched steering vector (SV) by the eigenvalue decomposition of the reconstructed desired signal covariance matrix. The projection method is utilized to redesign the signal interference-plus-noise covariance matrix. Furthermore, the beamforming weight vector is calculated with the two parameters obtained before and used as the label of the RAB-RCNN model, The trained model can rapidly and precisely output the predicted beamforming weight vector without complex matrix operations, including the matrix inversion of the signal covariance matrix, so that the calculation time can be reduced for beamforming. Simulations demonstrate the robustness of the presented approach against SV mismatches due to the direction-of-arrival estimation error, sensor position error, and local scattering interference.

The steering vector mismatch causes signal self-nulling for adaptive beamforming when the training data contain the desired signal component. To prevent signal self-nulling, many beamformers use robust technology, which is usually equivalent to the diagonal loading approach. Unfortunately, the diagonal loading approach achieves better signal enhancement at the cost of losing its interference suppression capability, especially at high input signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, a novel robust adaptive beamforming method is developed to improve the interference suppression capability. The proposed beamformer is based on the worst-case performance optimization technology with a new estimated steering vector and a special set parameter. Firstly, a subspace which is orthogonal to the interference's steering vector is obtained by using the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix; then a new steering vector which is orthogonal to each interference's steering vector is estimated; finally, the beamformer's weight is solved with the worst-case performance optimization technology with a special set parameter. Theoretical analysis of the interference suppression principle is analyzed in detail, and some simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed beamformer.