PASSIVE LOCALIZATION OF NEAR-FIELD SOURCES BY PATH-FOLLOWING

A new algorithm for passively estimating the ranges and bearings of mu ltiple narrow-band sources using a uniform linear sensor array is pres ented. The algorithm is computationally efficient and converges global ly. It minimizes the MUSIC cost function subject to geometrical constr aints imposed by the curvature of the received wavefronts. The estimat ion problem is reduced to one of solving a set of two coupled 2-D poly nomial equations. The proposed algorithm solves this nonlinear problem using a modification of the path-following (or homotopy) method. For an array having m sensors, the algorithm reduces the global 2-D search over range and bearing to 2(m - 1) independent 1-D searches. This imp arts a high degree of parallelism that can be exploited to obtain sour ce location estimates very efficiently.