TDOA association for localization of multiple emitters when each sensor receives different number of incoming signals

In this paper, Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) association problem in 2 dimensional localization is discussed. In 2 dimensional localization, at least three sensors are necessary to locate an emitter. When 2 or more emitters exist, there are multiple number of TDOAs obtained at each cross correlation process. In this case, it is necessary to associate TDOA to the right emitter. The problem here is that the number of TDOAs obtained at each cross correlation process could be different from the other. It happens when some of the emitted signals are received only at some of antennas, not all, due to directional pattern of antenna, blocking, and so forth. This paper proposes a TDOA association method when the number of TDOAs are different from one sensor pair to the other. The simulation result shows that the proposed method can associate TDOAs at the success rate of 97%.