Radar Emitter Localization Using TDOA

This paper presents passive radar emitter localization using the Time-Difference-Of-Arrival (TDOA) technique from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) working in conjunction with a fixed/mobile station (such as a shipborne/land-based station) to geolocate a radar emitter to fulfill maritime and littoral area surveillance. Instead of using multiple stationary sensors, multiple TDOA measurements are obtained over time intervals from moving sensors along their flight paths. A simple Least-Squares (LS) solution is derived from TDOA measurements in combination with known sensor locations to solve three-dimensional (3-D) location estimation. The proposed location method takes into account of both random and systematic or nonrandom measurement errors and it allows the removal of measurement errors that are nonrandom. Therefore, a position-location problem can be solved more accurately when biased measurements are present. The advantages and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated using simulation.