Proposed Direction-of-arrival Estimation Research Articles

Motion-guided large aperture ULA to enhance DOA estimation: An inverse synthetic aperture perspective

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is a critical issue in array signal processing, especially in radar applications. However, the array aperture of high-frequency radars is constrained by the site and platform, which in turn leads to limited DOA estimation performance. In this paper, inspired by the inverse synthetic aperture radar, we design a novel DOA estimation method based on motion-guided large-aperture uniform linear array (ULA). Referring to the concept of inverse synthetic aperture, the novel method utilizes the relative motion between the radar and the target to construct a larger ULA. We demonstrate that the key condition for reconstructing ULAs is suitable data segmentation and reshaping within the coherent integration time. However, the correct segmentation position is related to the target's motion trajectory. For non-cooperative targets, the uncertain segmentation position is regarded as a mismatch problem between the steering and weighting vectors, such that the spatial spectrum becomes a product of two sinc-like functions. With the analysis of the main lobe and grating lobes, the maximum peak-to-grating-lobe ratio criterion is introduced to find the ambiguity-free DOA. The experimental results demonstrate the performance advantages of the proposed DOA estimation algorithm in terms of noise robustness and resolution.

Robust Sparse Recovery Based Vehicles Location Estimation in Intelligent Transportation System

An architecture for vehicle position estimation is introduced in this paper to tackle the issue of vehicles positioning in traffic congestion of intelligent transportation system (ITS). The introduced architecture is related to three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with uniform linear array (ULA), ITS center and the terminal of position estimation, in which the UAV collect data from the ULA, the ITS center store data and the terminal is responsible for executing the corresponding direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm to estimate the vehicle position. In the introduced architecture, DOA estimation is the crucial issue, hence a robust sparse recovery framework based on the optimal weighted subspace fitting is put forward for DOA estimation in the presence of direction-dependent unknown mutual coupling. Firstly, a data model can be obtained by a new transformation approach. Then, a sparse recovery algorithm based on the weighted subspace fitting is used to estimate the desired DOAs. The proposed DOA estimation algorithm can achieve superior performance in both coherent and incoherent signals in the environment of direction-dependent mutual coupling, and this environment often occurs in traffic congestion. Based on the DOA estimation results obtained from the proposed efficient regularized sparse recovery algorithm, the position of vehicles is final estimated by a weighted three-points cross-positioning method. The results of various simulation experiments fully demonstrate the robustness and superiority of the proposed architecture and algorithm.

A robust direction-of-arrival estimation method for impulsive noise environments

The performance of conventional direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation methods degrades greatly when there are few snapshots and the noise model is mismatched, especially in impulsive noise environments. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a robust DOA estimation method, which is robust to the probability density function of impulsive noise. First, by exploiting the low-rank decomposition of the residual fitting error matrix and the characteristics of impulsive noise, three conditions of a good cost function in impulsive noise environments are proposed, and a unified cost function framework is established. Based on this, a robust cost function is designed to suppress the contribution of samples with impulsive noise to the cost function. Then, a bi-iterative complex fixed-point algorithm (BI-CFPA) is developed for the nonconvex optimization problem of signal subspace estimation based on the proposed robust cost function. Theoretical analyses indicate that the BI-CFPA has excellent numerical stability and low computational complexity. Finally, with the estimated signal subspace, the multiple signal classification technique is employed to obtain DOA estimates. Simulation results show that the proposed DOA estimator performs better than existing methods in three typical impulsive noise environments, especially under fairly strong impulsive noise.

Direction-of-arrival estimation in half-space from single sample array snapshot.

Most existing direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms are intended for single-frequency use. However, the majority of real sound fields are wideband, and the application of these techniques then becomes computationally expensive. In this paper, a fast DOA estimation method for use with wideband sound fields is constructed from only a single observation of the array signal based on the properties of a space of spherically band-limited functions. The proposed method can be applied to any element arrangement and spatial dimensions, and the computational load is only dependent on the number of microphones in the array. However, because this method does not use time information, forward-backward identification of the arriving waves is not possible. Therefore, the proposed DOA estimation method is limited to a half-space. Numerical simulations of multiple sound waves arriving from a half-space show that the proposed method offers good processing performance when applied to pulse-like broadband sound fields. The results also indicate that the method is capable of tracking DOAs in real time, even when these DOAs vary rapidly.

Structured Nyquist Correlation Reconstruction for DOA Estimation With Sparse Arrays

Sparse arrays are known to achieve an increased number of degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation, where an augmented virtual uniform array calculated from the correlations of sub-Nyquist spatial samples is processed to retrieve the angles unambiguously. Nevertheless, the geometry of the derived virtual array is dominated by the specific physical array configurations, as well as the deviation caused by the practical unforeseen circumstances such as detection malfunction and missing data, resulting in a quite sensitive model for virtual array signal processing. In this paper, we propose a novel sparse array DOA estimation algorithm via structured correlation reconstruction, where the Nyquist spatial filling is implemented on the physical array with a compressed transformation related to its equivalent filled array to guarantee the general applicability. While the unknown correlations located in the whole rows and columns of the augmented covariance matrix lead to the fact that strong incoherence property is no longer satisfied for matrix completion, the structural information is introduced as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">a prior</i> to formulate the structured correlation reconstruction problem for matrix reconstruction. As such, the reconstructed covariance matrix can be effectively processed with full utilization of the achievable DOFs from the virtual array, but with a more flexible constraint on the array configuration. The described estimation problem is theoretically analyzed by deriving the corresponding Cram´er-Rao bound (CRB). Moreover, we compare the derived CRB with the performance of the virtual array interpolation-based algorithm. Extensive simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DOA estimation algorithm in terms of achievable DOFs, resolution, and estimation accuracy.

Robust direction‐of‐arrival estimation approach using beamspace‐based deep neural networks with array imperfections and element failure

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is a fundamental functionality of sensor array systems. Previous methods only consider element failure or array imperfections. In fact, the co-existence of element failure and array imperfections is more in line with the realistic operation conditions of an array system. However, the performance of previous methods degrades significantly in the presence of both array imperfections and element failure. To deal with this problem, a robust DOA estimation method is proposed based on a deep neural network (DNN). The proposed DNN consists of a denoising autoencoder (DAE) and a parallel network. The DAE can restore damaged array signals to “non-corrupted” signals, and the parallel network is able to process signals with different levels of loss to improve DOA estimation accuracy. At the training stage, array imperfections are modelled as a spherical distribution, and the training samples are extracted under this distribution to improve the generalisation capability of the proposed network to various array imperfections. In addition, the authors propose to estimate the spatial spectrum in a virtual array beamspace, which can reduce the computational complexity as well as signal-to-noise ratio resolution threshold, and further enhance the robustness to array imperfections. Numerical results show that the proposed DOA estimation approach works well in the presence of both array imperfections and element failure.

Multi-UAV Cooperative Localization for Marine Targets Based on Weighted Subspace Fitting in SAGIN Environment

As an indispensable part of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be deployed for target positioning and navigation in the space–air–ground-integrated network (SAGIN) environment. Maritime target positioning is very important for the safe navigation of ships, hydrographic surveys, and marine resource exploration. Traditional methods typically exploit satellites to locate marine targets in the SAGIN environment, and the location accuracy does not satisfy the requirements of modern ocean observation missions. In order to localize the marine target, we develop a system architecture in this article, which contains UAVs integrated with monostatic multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) radars. The main thrust is to estimate the direction-of-arrival (DOA) via MIMO radar. Herein, we consider a general scenario that unknown mutual coupling exist and a novel sparse reconstruction algorithm is proposed. The mutual coupling matrix (MCM) is adopted with the help of its special structure, we formulate the data model as a sparse representation form. Then, two novel matrices, a weighted matrix, and a reduced-dimensional matrix are constructed to reduce the computational complexity and enhance the sparsity, respectively. Thereafter, a sparse constraint model is constructed using the concept of optimal weighted subspace fitting (WSF). Finally, the DOA estimation of maritime targets can be achieved by reconstructing the support of a block sparse matrix. Based on the DOA estimation results, multiple UAVs are used to cross-locate marine targets multiple times, and an accurate marine target position is achieved in the SAGIN environment. Numerical results are carried out, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed DOA estimator, and the multi-UAV cooperative localization system can realize accurate target localization.

Far-Field DOA Estimation of Uncorrelated RADAR Signals through Coprime Arrays in Low SNR Regime by Implementing Cuckoo Search Algorithm

For the purpose of attaining a high degree of freedom (DOF) for the direction of arrival (DOA) estimations in radar technology, coprime sensor arrays (CSAs) are evaluated in this paper. In addition, the global and local minima of extremely non-linear functions are investigated, aiming to improve DOF. The optimization features of the cuckoo search (CS) algorithm are utilized for DOA estimation of far-field sources in a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environment. The analytical approach of the proposed CSAs, CS and global and local minima in terms of cumulative distribution function (CDF), fitness function and SNR for DOA accuracy are presented. The parameters like root mean square error (RMSE) for frequency distribution, RMSE variability analysis, estimation accuracy, RMSE for CDF, robustness against snapshots and noise and RMSE for Monte Carlo simulation runs are explored for proposed model performance estimation. In conclusion, the proposed DOA estimation in radar technology through CS and CSA achievements are contrasted with existing tools such as particle swarm optimization (PSO).

DOA Estimation Algorithm for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Co-Prime Linear Array Based on Multiple Signal Classification Approach

Co-prime linear arrays (CLAs) provide an additional degree of freedom (DOF) with a limited number of physical sensors, and thus help to improve the resolution of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms. However, the DOF of traditional CLA is restrained by the structure of the array, which cannot be adjusted after deployment. In this paper, we propose a DOA estimation algorithm for reconfigurable intelligent surface co-prime linear array (RIS CLA) based on the multiple signal classification approach. Specifically, an RIS CLA is first constructed on the ground of RIS antenna, by turning on/off specific elements at different times. Then, the covariance matrix of the received signal is vectorized, so as to construct a virtual difference array, whose aperture is considerably expanded. Finally, a spectral peak search on the noise subspace of the received signal of the difference array is conducted to obtain the DOA estimation result. Simulations verify the improvement of the proposed algorithm in terms of DOF and resolution. To be specific, the DOF provided by RIS CLA outnumbers that of CLA by more than 30%, and the resolution of the proposed DOA estimation algorithm is effectively improved, with its accuracy increased up to 70% under the low signal-noise-ratio (SNR) scenario, compared with existing algorithms.

DOA Estimation for Transmit Beamspace MIMO Radar via Tensor Decomposition With Vandermonde Factor Matrix

We address the problem of tensor decomposition in application to direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation for transmit beamspace (TB) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. A general 4-order tensor model that enables computationally efficient DOA estimation is designed. Whereas other tensor decomposition-based methods treat all factor matrices as arbitrary, the essence of the proposed DOA estimation method is to fully exploit the Vandermonde structure of the factor matrices to take advantage of the shift-invariance between and within different subarrays. Specifically, the received signal of TB MIMO radar is expressed as a 4-order tensor. Depending on the target Doppler shifts, the constructed tensor is reshaped into two distinct 3-order tensors. A computationally efficient tensor decomposition method is proposed to decompose the Vandermonde factor matrices. The generators of the Vandermonde factor matrices are computed to estimate the phase rotations between subarrays, which can be utilized as a look-up table for finding target DOA. It is further shown that our proposed method can be used in a more general scenario where the subarray structures can be arbitrary but identical. The proposed DOA estimation method requires no prior information about the tensor rank and is guaranteed to achieve precise decomposition result. Simulation results illustrate the performance improvement of the proposed DOA estimation method as compared to conventional DOA estimation techniques for TB MIMO Radar.

Time-Modulated Array System Controlled With Bipolar Squared Periodic Sequence for Direction of Arrival Estimation

A new approach to estimate the direction-of-arrival (DOA) in a Time-Modulated Array (TMA) system with a bipolar squared periodic time-modulating sequence is proposed in this letter. Using such a sequence can increase the power of harmonic components of the received signal. Based on this fact, we formulated a new parameter pertaining to the ratio of the upper and lower sideband first harmonic components of the received signal, to improve the accuracy of the DOA estimation in a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environment. A numerical analysis was performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed DOA estimation method.

Direction of arrival estimation method based on quantum electromagnetic field optimization in the impulse noise

In order to resolve direction finding problems in the impulse noise, a direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method is proposed. The proposed DOA estimation method can restrain the impulse noise by using infinite norm exponential kernel co-variance matrix and obtain excellent performance via the maximum-likelihood (ML) algorithm. In order to obtain the global optimal solutions of this method, a quantum electromagnetic field optimization (QEFO) algorithm is designed. In view of the QEFO algorithm, the proposed method can resolve the difficulties of DOA estimation in the impulse noise. Comparing with some traditional DOA estimation methods, the proposed DOA estimation method shows high superiority and robustness for determining the DOA of independent and coherent sources, which has been verified via the Monte-Carlo experiments of different schemes, especially in the case of snapshot deficiency, low generalized signal to noise ratio (GSNR) and strong impulse noise. Beyond that, the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) of angle estimation in the impulse noise and the proof of the convergence of the QEFO algorithm are provided in this paper.

Direction of Arrival Estimation Using Four Isotropic Receivers

We consider the micro positioning platform which is equipped with only four receivers. This paper considers estimating the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) using four isotropic receivers. As a signal is reflected or scattered, its amplitude attenuates significantly. Thus, as we estimate the DOA, we use receivers with high signal amplitude, since they have more probability to receive a direct signal (not a reflected signal), compared to other receivers with low signal amplitude. Every receiver uses both the phase difference and the signal amplitude, in order to estimate the DOA. The efficiency of the proposed DOA estimation is verified by comparing it with the MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm using computer simulations.

Direction of arrival estimation in multipath environments using deep learning

SummaryThis article aims to present a novel direction of arrival (DOA) estimation strategy in multipath environments using deep learning. Eigen decomposition‐based algorithms, such as multiple signal classification (MUSIC), have high‐resolution DOA estimation performance, but they fail to work in the case of coherent signals. These algorithms require extensive computation and are difficult to implement in real time. Neural networks (multilayer perceptron [MLP] and radial basis function neural network [RBFNN]) are also applied to DOA estimation problem, and they are found to be faster than the conventional techniques, but they fail to ensure the desired accuracy in multipath environments when the training data set contains a huge number of samples and the number of incident signals was unknown. To enhance the DOA estimation performance, an efficient convolutional neural network (CNN)‐based smart antenna is proposed. This smart antenna is composed of a uniform linear array (ULA), an intelligent DOA estimator, and an efficient adaptive beamformer, and the space is decomposed into five space sectors. The intelligent DOA estimator contains six CNN networks. One network is used as a classifier to select one or more space sectors, and five networks are used to calculate the DOAs of unknown number of coherent or noncoherent incident signals that received in the selected space sectors. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DOA estimator enables reliable DOA estimation despite very challenging multipath environment, and the CNN substantially reduces the CPU time for the DOA estimation computations especially when the number of incident signals is large.

Grid-less DOA estimation of coherent sources based on the covariance matrix recovery

A grid-less direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm via covariance matrix recovery is developed to improve the DOA estimation performance under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for coherent and non-coherent sources. Firstly, we propose to recover the covariance matrix by utilizing both the Hermitian Toeplitz structure of the covariance matrix and the noise statistical characters in the multiple measurement vectors (MMVs). An efficient grid-less DOA estimation algorithm based on the covariance matrix’s first column is also presented to reduce grid mismatch effects. The simulation results show that the proposed DOA estimation algorithm can better recover the covariance matrix than the covariance fitting algorithms with non-coherent and coherent sources. Besides, simulations also verify that the proposed algorithm has a smaller root mean square error (RMSE) and higher estimation probability than the state-of-the-art algorithms in low SNR and small angle separation.

DOA Elevation and Azimuth Angles Estimation of GPS Jamming Signals Using Fast Orthogonal Search

This article introduces a new two-dimensional direction of arrival (DOA) elevation and azimuth angles estimation technique for global positioning system (GPS) jamming signals in challenging environments based on the fast orthogonal search (FOS) method. FOS-DOA estimation is accommodated to process array structure optimized for interference rejection. Performance of FOS-DOA is compared to the predominant multiple signal classification (MUSIC) DOA estimation method. Results showed significant improvement in jamming detection of the multiple sources of interference with slight variations in their amplitude at jamming to signal ratio (JSR) 15 and 45 dB. The improvement introduced by the proposed DOA estimation technique is mainly in the accuracy of detecting the number of jammers and their DOA.

Real-Time Estimation of Direction of Arrival of Speech Source Using Three Microphones.

In this paper, we present a real-time noise-robust direction of arrival (DOA) estimation technique using only the three built-in microphones of the modern Android-based smartphone. The proposed method eliminates the 'front-back' ambiguity caused by the symmetry of the two microphones reported previously and improves the performance of DOA estimation in noisy speech environments. Our method enhances the spatial awareness of hearing-impaired users by displaying the precise DOA angle of speech source on their smartphone screen. For increased efficiency, noise-robustness, and accuracy of the proposed DOA estimation method, a spectral pre-filtering technique and a Voice Activity Detector (VAD) based post-filtering are used along with a modified generalized cross-correlation (GCC) technique. Real recorded and simulated data under realistic noisy conditions are used in the evaluations of the proposed algorithm. Real-time implementation of the proposed system is carried out on an Android-based smartphone without any additional hardware or external microphone attachments. Experimental results show the performance of the proposed method versus those without pre or post-filtering under three different noisy conditions with 0dB to 10dB signal to noise ratios (SNRs).

Parameter Estimation for Two-Dimensional Incoherently Distributed Source with Double Cross Arrays.

A direction of arrival (DOA) estimator for two-dimensional (2D) incoherently distributed (ID) sources is presented under proposed double cross arrays, satisfying both the small interval of parallel linear arrays and the aperture equalization in the elevation and azimuth dimensions. First, by virtue of a first-order Taylor expansion for array manifold vectors of parallel linear arrays, the received signal of arrays can be reconstructed by the products of generalized manifold matrices and extended signal vectors. Then, the rotating invariant relations concerning the nominal elevation and azimuth are derived. According to the rotating invariant relationships, the rotating operators are obtained through the subspace of the covariance matrix of the received vectors. Last, the angle matching approach and angular spreads are explored based on the Capon principle. The proposed method for estimating the DOA of 2D ID sources does not require a spectral search and prior knowledge of the angular power density function. The proposed DOA estimation has a significant advantage in terms of computational cost. Investigating the influence of experimental conditions and angular spreads on estimation, numerical simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper has advantages in terms of estimation accuracy, with a similar number of sensors and the same experimental conditions when compared with existing methods, and that it shows a robustness in cases of model mismatch.

Auxiliary Vehicle Positioning Based on Robust DOA Estimation With Unknown Mutual Coupling

As an important branch of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), vehicle positioning has drawn extensive attention. Traditional positioning systems based on a global positioning system incur long delays, and may fail due to obstructions. In this article, we propose an auxiliary positioning architecture, whose core is to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA) of signals from landmarks, such as wireless access points, utilizing a sensor array in the vehicle. Due to space limitations, the array may be placed in an arbitrary geometry and may suffer from unknown mutual coupling. Most algorithms are only effective for sensor arrays with special geometries, e.g., a uniform linear array or rectangular array. To tackle this problem, an improved multiple signal classification algorithm is derived, which is superior to the state-of-the-art iterative method from the perspective of computational complexity. Detailed analysis concerning identifiability, computational complexity, and Cramér-Rao bounds are given. The simulation results verify the improvement of the proposed DOA estimation algorithm. The proposed architecture can obtain robust self-localization with existing vehicular ad hoc networks, and it can collaborate with other positioning systems to provide a safe driving environment.

Direction of arrival estimation with antenna arrays based on fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller neural network

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation has been a challenging problem in many applications such as wireless communication, radar, sonar, and navigation. However, it is difficult to improve the angle resolution and reduce the computational complexity of super-resolution methods. To solve these problems, the DOA estimation is viewed as a mapping problem, which can be modeled using a suitable artificial neural network trained with input-output pairs. This article presents the use of a fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (FCMAC) neural network for the DOA estimation under a linear antenna array. The FCMAC neural network is a special feedforward neural network based on local approximation that can be adapted to solve the multidimensional nonlinear fitting problem. A new preprocessing scheme has been used in both training and test phase. It use magnitude and phase angles instead of the real and imaginary parts of the array covariance matrix to be the input of neural network. The proposed method avoids complex matrix eigen-decomposition, such as multiple signal classification, and offers fast computation rate. The performance of FCMAC neural network is compared with the conventional subspace methods and the radial basis function neural network in the cases of noisy environment and coherent signal. Simulation results indicate that FCMAC neural network produces up to 61% lower error, 60% higher angle resolution, and 99% lower calculation time than other three methods, which indicates the superior performance of the proposed DOA estimation method under coherent signals and different noise levels.