A Novel Quaternion DOA Estimation Algorithm Based on Magnetic Loop Antenna

Almost all of the DOA (direction-of-angle) estimation methods which are based on long vector data model generally need a high-dimensional searching process or complex computation process. Since the process is complex, it is limited in the practical applications. A novel estimation algorithm of DOA is proposed based on quaternion data model in this paper. The signal output model based on quaternion is set for electromagnetic loop sensors. Based on quaternion data model, there are only DOA parameters but not polarization parameters in the direction matrix. Thus, the high-dimensional searching process is replaced by low-dimensional process in the proposed DOA estimation algorithm, so that the computation is heavily reduced. The performance of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through numerical examples.