International Journal of Control and Automation Vol. 10, No. 11 (2017), pp.105-114 http//dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijca.2017.10.11.10 ISSN: 2005-4297 IJCA Copyright © 2017 SERSC Australia An Application of Sensor Array Processing in Characterizing One Dimensional Surface Roughness 1 Youssef Khmou 1 , Said Safi 2 and Miloud Frikel 3 1,2 Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco 3 GREYC Lab UMR 6072 CNRS, Equipe Automatique, Avenue 6 juin, 14053 Caen, France 1 khmou.y@gmail.com, 2 safi.said@gmail.com, 3 mfrikel@greyc.ensicaen.fr Abstract Part of array signal processing is focused on engineering of angular interferometry to study and characterize the properties of radiating sources and media of propagation, among the applications of array processing we find telecommunications for radio signals, geophysics for seismic waves and maritime communications for underwater acoustical sources. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of applying array processing techniques to partially characterize one dimensional surface roughness of rectangular plate, we propose a system composed of three identical arrays of sensors in far field region relatively to the rectangular plate. The principle of one dimensional roughness description is based on azimuth angle and Fraunhofer criterion. The system consists of one transmitted plane wave and three arrays that intercept the backscattered specular component and diffuse field in several directions, using a combination of multidimensional received signals that are linearly polarized, we construct one characteristic function resulting from angular scan in visible domain of uniform linear array of sensors. The proposed system is supported by numerical simulation. Keywords: Array signal processing, one dimensional roughness, rectangular plate, angular interferometry, diffuse reflection, specular reflection. 1. Introduction The objective of array processing [1,2] is the exploitation of spatial and temporal interferences of intercepted wave fronts in order to study and measure the properties of radiating sources such the directions of propagation composed of azimuth and elevation angles [1], the polarization of waveforms [3], theirs frequency spectra and theirs powers. Array processing can also be used to study the properties of propagation medium [4] which consists of many processes including, diffraction [5] when waves encounter objects and apertures whose dimensions are comparable to the carrier wavelength, reflection and refraction when waves strike different medium described by relative permittivity and permeability for electromagnetic waves [6]. Concerning the reflection phenomenon, it can divided into three categories, the first is when the surface of reflection is very flat, the reflection is considered specular [7,8,9] the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, if the surface presents some protuberances or small irregularities, the reflection beam consists of specular part which contains the majority of energy and the diffuse part where the propagating secondary sources take several directions concentrated around the mean [7,8,9], the last case is when the surface is very rough, the reflection is diffuse such as no direction is privileged [7,8,9]. These three types are valid for both acoustic [10] and electromagnetic Received (June 10, 2017), Review Result (October 24, 2017), Accepted (November 5, 2017)