Fast non-line-of-sight receivers conjecturing method in TDOA localisation using obstacle information

Abstract

Time difference of arrival (TDOA) method to locate an emitter is widely used to localise the position of an emitter. In localising an emitter, non-line-of-sight errors are added if an obstacle like a building blocks the line-of-sight (LOS) path between the receiver and the emitter. This study considers the case where the authors have a priori information on the obstacle environments. Using the obstacle information, they conjecture LOS receivers followed by estimating the emitter position using the conjectured LOS receivers. The proposed estimation method provides a reasonable emitter estimate in a time efficient manner. Since the proposed algorithm runs fast with reasonable estimate results, the estimation method can be applied to track an emitter, which moves in cluttered environments, in real time. The effectiveness of the estimation method is verified using extensive MATLAB simulations.