A LBI based emitter location estimator with platform trajectory optimality

When trying to estimate the location of a non-cooperative non-coherent emitter using intercepted signal measurements from a single airborne platform, the Doppler-based techniques, such as the Frequency of Arrival (FOA) is not applicable. In this paper, we propose a single platform long baseline interferometry (LBI) based emitter location estimator which achieves optimal estimation accuracy on average without any prior information such as a rough emitter location estimate or a reference point. The novelty of the proposed approach is that it tackles the ¿phase wrapping¿ problem inherited in the LBI by exploring the spatial diversity and requiring the platform to fly along a spiral-shaped trajectory. We demonstrate that an arbitrary platform trajectory can be evaluated in terms of the ability of getting accurate estimation using an entropy-based diversity measure. The robustness of the proposed scheme is also explored. This work intends to provide a different angle for single platform emitter location estimation accuracy improvements.