Trajectory optimization for minimum range error in bearings-only source localization

This paper compares two performance indices for computing optimal observer paths for the bearings-only source constant velocity sources. The problem is based on maximizing the determinant of the Fisher information matrix (FIM) of the estimation problem. It considers minimizing the trace of a weighted sum of the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of current source position error. Quasi-Newton optimization is used to compare optimal observer paths, given the goal of minimizing current position error. Significant differences in optimal paths are observed, and the CRLB trace is found to yield smaller range error