Three Dimensional Source Localization Using Arrival Angles from Linear Arrays: Analytical Investigation and Optimal Solution

Angle-based localization of a source at unique coordinates in the three-dimensional (3-D) space utilizes traditionally the two-dimensional (2-D) angle of arrival (AOA) measurements from planar arrays. This paper investigates the positioning performance and develops an optimal solution for the 3-D localization using one-dimensional (1-D) space angle (SA) measurements that has the appeal of involving linear arrays only. The localization performance by SA is less understood and the positioning algorithms from the literature are suboptimal and have restrictions on the altitudes and orientations of the linear array receivers. This paper establishes the basic concept of using SA for localization, and conducts analytical comparison of SA and AOA positionings by cross arrays, where the contrasts in the angle observation accuracy, the geometric dilution effect and overall localization performance are elaborated. A solution that can reach the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound performance under Gaussian noise is also proposed that does not have restriction on the placement of the linear array receivers. It consists of an initial solution by semidefinite relaxation and a refined solution by an algebraic estimator. Simulations validate the theoretical investigation and the algorithm performance.