Geometric Algebra-Based ESPRIT Algorithm for DOA Estimation

Abstract

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation plays an important role in array signal processing, and the Estimating Signal Parameter via Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPRIT) algorithm is one of the typical super resolution algorithms for direction finding in an electromagnetic vector-sensor (EMVS) array; however, existing ESPRIT algorithms treat the output of the EMVS array either as a “long vector”, which will inevitably lead to loss of the orthogonality of the signal components, or a quaternion matrix, which may result in some missing information. In this paper, we propose a novel ESPRIT algorithm based on Geometric Algebra (GA-ESPRIT) to estimate 2D-DOA with double parallel uniform linear arrays. The algorithm combines GA with the principle of ESPRIT, which models the multi-dimensional signals in a holistic way, and then the direction angles can be calculated by different GA matrix operations to keep the correlations among multiple components of the EMVS. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed GA-ESPRIT algorithm is robust to model errors and achieves less time complexity and smaller memory requirements.