GLRT-based threshold detection-estimation performance improvement and application to uniform circular antenna arrays

©2006 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE."This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder."The problem of estimating the number of independent Gaussian sources and their parameters impinging upon an antenna array is addressed for scenarios that are problematic for standard techniques, namely, under "threshold conditions" (where subspace techniques such as MUSIC experience an abrupt and dramatic performance breakdown). We propose an antenna geometry-invariant method that adopts the generalized-likelihood-ratio test (GLRT) methodology, supported by a maximum-likelihood-ratio lower-bound analysis that allows erroneous solutions ("outliers") to be found and rectified. Detection-estimation performance in both uniform circular and linear antenna arrays is shown to be significantly improved compared with conventional techniques but limited by the performance-breakdown phenomenon that is intrinsic to all such maximum-likelihood (ML) techniques.Yuri I. Abramovich, Nicholas K. Spencer, and Alexei Y. Gorokho

DOA Estimation in Partially Correlated Noise Using Low-Rank/Sparse Matrix Decomposition

We consider the problem of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation in unknown partially correlated noise environments where the noise covariance matrix is sparse. A sparse noise covariance matrix is a common model for a sparse array of sensors consisted of several widely separated subarrays. Since interelement spacing among sensors in a subarray is small, the noise in the subarray is in general spatially correlated, while, due to large distances between subarrays, the noise between them is uncorrelated. Consequently, the noise covariance matrix of such an array has a block diagonal structure which is indeed sparse. Moreover, in an ordinary nonsparse array, because of small distance between adjacent sensors, there is noise coupling between neighboring sensors, whereas one can assume that nonadjacent sensors have spatially uncorrelated noise which makes again the array noise covariance matrix sparse. Utilizing some recently available tools in low-rank/sparse matrix decomposition, matrix completion, and sparse representation, we propose a novel method which can resolve possibly correlated or even coherent sources in the aforementioned partly correlated noise. In particular, when the sources are uncorrelated, our approach involves solving a second-order cone programming (SOCP), and if they are correlated or coherent, one needs to solve a computationally harder convex program. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by numerical simulations and comparison to the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB).Comment: in IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel signal processing workshop (SAM), 201

Target DoA estimation in passive radar using non-uniform linear arrays and multiple frequency channels

In this paper we present a robust approach for target direction of arrival (DoA) estimation in passive radar that jointly exploits spatial and frequency diversity. Specifically we refer to a DVB-T based passive radar receiver equipped with a linear array of few antenna elements non-uniformly spaced in the horizontal dimension, able to collect multiple DVB-T channels simultaneously. We resort to a maximum likelihood (ML) approach to jointly exploit the target echoes collected across the antenna elements at multiple carrier frequencies. Along with an expected improvement in terms of DoA estimation accuracy, we show that the available spatial and frequency diversity can be fruitfully exploited to extend the unambiguous angular sector useful for DoA estimation, which represent an invaluable tool in many applications. To this purpose, a performance analysis is reported against experimental data collected by a multi-channel DVB-T based passive radar developed by Leonardo S.p.A

Generalized DOA and Source Number Estimation Techniques for Acoustics and Radar

The purpose of this thesis is to emphasize the lacking areas in the field of direction of arrival estimation and to propose building blocks for continued solution development in the area. A review of current methods are discussed and their pitfalls are emphasized. DOA estimators are compared to each other for usage on a conformal microphone array which receives impulsive, wideband signals. Further, many DOA estimators rely on the number of source signals prior to DOA estimation. Though techniques exist to achieve this, they lack robustness to estimate for certain signal types, particularly in the case where multiple radar targets exist in the same range bin. A deep neural network approach is proposed and evaluated for this particular case. The studies detailed in this thesis are specific to acoustic and radar applications for DOA estimation

DOA Convergence of Unstructured Distributed Arrays with Time-varying and Space-varying Morphologies

This thesis mainly focuses on the research of the factors that influence the accuracy and efficiency of a UAV-based radio frequency (RF) and microwave data collection system. Swarming UAVs can be utilized to create the unstructured morphing antenna arrays that reduce aliasing and improve convergence in sub-space direction of arrival techniques. This thesis first reports on the ramifications of using unstructured antenna arrays based on sub-space techniques. This work evaluates the classical MUSIC algorithm and root-MUSIC algorithm, and Fourier domain root-MUSIC algorithm (FD Root-MUSIC). Compared to the MUSIC algorithm, the root-MUSIC algorithm avoids the search of spatial spectrum, reduces the computational complexity and improves the ability of real world applications. Then, this thesis comes up with the data model for the UAV swarming system. Based on the data model, this work examines the impact of UAV swarm density and heterogeneity on synthetic aperture DOA convergence. The synthetic aperture is derived from the displacement of distributed UAVs operating in a sparse volumetric swarm. Heterogeneity arises from the changing orientation of a UAV’s antenna and receiving pattern function as it swarms in the distributed cluster of UAVs. This alters the UAVs’ antenna pattern functions over time and alters the convergence and overall performance properties of vector-space direction of arrival techniques. This work evaluates the impact of the swarm density and orientation in this framework and studies the convergence and error using MUSIC algorithm. This work also discusses the impact of different type of errors introduced from UAV swarming. Furthermore, this thesis examines the DOA convergence performance of location-varying volumetric random array using MUSIC algorithm. Simulation and measurements for up to sixteen elements on a thirty-two-location test platform are provided and comparisons are made to benchmark their performance with theoretical expectations. MATLAB simulation indicates that the volumetric random arrays can be applied in a very noisy condition by increasing the iterations and multiplying the MUSIC spectrum and experimental observations demonstrate that the system accurately capture the azimuthal and elevation angles of the source. At last, this thesis investigates and designs the tunable FM band monopole and loop antennas to locate the FM broadcasting stations. The wavelength of the FM band is around three meters. This work uses lumped elements and meandering antenna structure technologies to reduce the antenna size and match the antenna. This work also uses the varactor diodes to tune the antenna. However, the antenna becomes electrically small and the antenna gain is so low that it cannot detect the FM signal from the local FM broadcasting stations

Statistical Nested Sensor Array Signal Processing

Source number detection and direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation are two major applications of sensor arrays. Both applications are often confined to the use of uniform linear arrays (ULAs), which is expensive and difficult to yield wide aperture. Besides, a ULA with N scalar sensors can resolve at most N − 1 sources. On the other hand, a systematic approach was recently proposed to achieve O(N 2 ) degrees of freedom (DOFs) using O(N) sensors based on a nested array, which is obtained by combining two or more ULAs with successively increased spacing. This dissertation will focus on a fundamental study of statistical signal processing of nested arrays. Five important topics are discussed, extending the existing nested-array strategies to more practical scenarios. Novel signal models and algorithms are proposed. First, based on the linear nested array, we consider the problem for wideband Gaussian sources. To employ the nested array to the wideband case, we propose effective strategies to apply nested-array processing to each frequency component, and combine all the spectral information of various frequencies to conduct the detection and estimation. We then consider the practical scenario with distributed sources, which considers the spreading phenomenon of sources. Next, we investigate the self-calibration problem for perturbed nested arrays, for which existing works require certain modeling assumptions, for example, an exactly known array geometry, including the sensor gain and phase. We propose corresponding robust algorithms to estimate both the model errors and the DOAs. The partial Toeplitz structure of the covariance matrix is employed to estimate the gain errors, and the sparse total least squares is used to deal with the phase error issue. We further propose a new class of nested vector-sensor arrays which is capable of significantly increasing the DOFs. This is not a simple extension of the nested scalar-sensor array. Both the signal model and the signal processing strategies are developed in the multidimensional sense. Based on the analytical results, we consider two main applications: electromagnetic (EM) vector sensors and acoustic vector sensors. Last but not least, in order to make full use of the available limited valuable data, we propose a novel strategy, which is inspired by the jackknifing resampling method. Exploiting numerous iterations of subsets of the whole data set, this strategy greatly improves the results of the existing source number detection and DOA estimation methods