Polynomial rooting-based direction finding for arbitrary array configurations

Abstract

In this paper, we propose angle of arrival estimation algorithms for arbitrary array geometries. The proposed methods extend the root-WSF and modified variable projection (MVP) algorithms to arbitrary array configurations. This is accomplished by employing the recently introduced manifold separation technique (MST), which stems from wavefield modelling. The algorithms process the data in the element-space domain, i.e. no mapping of the data that introduces errors is required. Moreover, coherent sources can be handled. The proposed MST-based MVP algorithm shows a statistical performance close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). The performance is illustrated using calibration data from two real-world arrays.