Emitter Localization System Based on a Synthetic Aperture Map Drift Technique Aided by an Interferometer

In emitter localization, the synthetic aperture positioning (SAP) technique can achieve high-precision positioning even at a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, existing methods require 2-D search implementation, which produces a huge amount of computation. In this study, the synthetic aperture map drift (MD) positioning method aided by an interferometer is proposed. This method reduces the amount of computation while achieving high-precision positioning. First, the exact azimuth position and approximate range position can be determined by a double-interference antenna via least-squares estimation. Doppler history is then used to correct range positioning error via an MD algorithm, which avoids the search of range and reduces the computational complexity. Simulation results show that the positioning accuracy of this method is close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through actual unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experiments.