RF localization solution using heterogeneous TDOA

This paper presents a solution for the localization of an RF transmitter using time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) measurements that do not share any common receiver location. Localization requires three independent TDOA measurements, and previous solutions have assumed that the three measurements all share a common receiver location. Relaxing this assumption is here referred to as heterogeneous TDOA. The approach presented formulates the TDOA measurements as a system of three quadratic equations for the transmitter position components, and solves these equations using the Macaulay resultant. The heterogeneous TDOAs allow for improved measurement geometry resulting in more accurate localization. The solution also allows for localization by two moving receivers, such as orbiting satellites, collecting TDOA measurements at three instants in time.