The influence of random element displacement on DOA estimates obtained with (Khatri-Rao-)root-MUSIC

Although a wide range of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms has been described for a diverse range of array configurations, no specific stochastic analysis framework has been established to assess the probability density function of the error on DOA estimates due to random errors in the array geometry. Therefore, we propose a stochastic collocation method that relies on a generalized polynomial chaos expansion to connect the statistical distribution of random position errors to the resulting distribution of the DOA estimates. We apply this technique to the conventional root-MUSIC and the Khatri-Rao-root-MUSIC methods. According to Monte-Carlo simulations, this novel approach yields a speedup by a factor of more than 100 in terms of CPU-time for a one-dimensional case and by a factor of 56 for a two-dimensional case

A review of closed-form Cramér-Rao Bounds for DOA estimation in the presence of Gaussian noise under a unified framework

The Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation has been extensively studied over the past four decades, with a plethora of CRB expressions reported for various parametric models. In the literature, there are different methods to derive a closed-form CRB expression, but many derivations tend to involve intricate matrix manipulations which appear difficult to understand. Starting from the Slepian-Bangs formula and following the simplest derivation approach, this paper reviews a number of closed-form Gaussian CRB expressions for the DOA parameter under a unified framework, based on which all the specific CRB presentations can be derived concisely. The results cover three scenarios: narrowband complex circular signals, narrowband complex noncircular signals, and wideband signals. Three signal models are considered: the deterministic model, the stochastic Gaussian model, and the stochastic Gaussian model with the a priori knowledge that the sources are spatially uncorrelated. Moreover, three Gaussian noise models distinguished by the structure of the noise covariance matrix are concerned: spatially uncorrelated noise with unknown either identical or distinct variances at different sensors, and arbitrary unknown noise. In each scenario, a unified framework for the DOA-related block of the deterministic/stochastic CRB is developed, which encompasses one class of closed-form deterministic CRB expressions and two classes of stochastic ones under the three noise models. Comparisons among different CRBs across classes and scenarios are presented, yielding a series of equalities and inequalities which reflect the benchmark for the estimation efficiency under various situations. Furthermore, validity of all CRB expressions are examined, with some specific results for linear arrays provided, leading to several upper bounds on the number of resolvable Gaussian sources in the underdetermined case

Underdetermined DOA Estimation Under the Compressive Sensing Framework: A Review

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation from the perspective of sparse signal representation has attracted tremendous attention in past years, where the underlying spatial sparsity reconstruction problem is linked to the compressive sensing (CS) framework. Although this is an area with ongoing intensive research and new methods and results are reported regularly, it is time to have a review about the basic approaches and methods for CS-based DOA estimation, in particular for the underdetermined case. We start from the basic time-domain CSbased formulation for narrowband arrays and then move to the case for recently developed methods for sparse arrays based on the co-array concept. After introducing two specifically designed structures (the two-level nested array and the co-prime array) for optimizing the virtual sensors corresponding to the difference coarray, this CS-based DOA estimation approach is extended to the wideband case by employing the group sparsity concept, where a much larger physical aperture can be achieved by allowing a larger unit inter-element spacing and therefore leading to further improved performance. Finally, a specifically designed ULA structure with associated CS-based underdetermined DOA estimation is presented to exploit the difference co-array concept in the spatio-spectral domain, leading to a significant increase in DOFs. Representative simulation results for typical narrowband and wideband scenarios are provided to demonstrate their performance

Detection of Wideband Signal Number Based on Bootstrap Resampling

Knowing source number correctly is the precondition for most spatial spectrum estimation methods; however, many snapshots are needed when we determine number of wideband signals. Therefore, a new method based on Bootstrap resampling is proposed in this paper. First, signals are divided into some nonoverlapping subbands; apply coherent signal methods (CSM) to focus them on the single frequency. Then, fuse the eigenvalues with the corresponding eigenvectors of the focused covariance matrix. Subsequently, use Bootstrap to construct the new resampling matrix. Finally, the number of wideband signals can be calculated with obtained vector sequences according to clustering technique. The method has a high probability of success under low signal to noise ratio (SNR) and small number of snapshots

Scaling transform based information geometry method for DOA estimation

By exploiting the relationship between probability density and the differential geometry structure of received data and geodesic distance, the recently proposed information geometry (IG) method can provide higher accuracy and resolution ability for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation than many existing methods. However, its performance is not robust even for high signal to noise ratio (SNR). To have a deep understanding of its unstable performance, a theoretical analysis of the IG method is presented by deriving the relationship between the cost function and the number of array elements, powers and DOAs of source signals, and noise power. Then, to make better use of the nonlinear and super resolution property of the cost function, a Scaling TRansform based INformation Geometry (STRING) method is proposed, which simply scales the array received data or its covariance matrix by a real number. However, the expression for the optimum value of the scalar is complicated and related to the unknown signal DOAs and powers. Hence, a decision criterion and a simple search based procedure are developed, guaranteeing a robust performance. As demonstrated by computer simulations, the proposed STRING method has the best and robust angle resolution performance compared with many existing high resolution methods and even outperforms the classic Cramer-Rao bound (CRB), although at the cost of a bias in the estimation results

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).This project has received funding from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 801538