Array shape calibration using sources in unknown locations-a maximum likelihood approach

Sensor location uncertainty can severely degrade the performance of direction finding systems. An exact maximum-likelihood method for simultaneously estimating directions of arrival (DOA) and sensor locations is developed to alleviate this problem. The case of nondisjoint sources, i.e., sources observed in the same frequency cell and at the same time, is emphasized. The algorithm is iterative and converges to the global maximum of the likelihood function is the initial conditions are good enough. Selected numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed technique is capable of correcting severe errors in the DOA estimates due to sensor location uncertainty