Fast Hardware-Oriented Algorithms for 3D Positioning in LOS and Single Bounced NLOS Environments

The ability to find the location of a mobile object and track it in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) space is an indispensable feature of wireless communication systems. These studies have been supported by governments and businesses since the beginning. In particular, the increase in demand for using self navigation technology in unmanned vehicles is attracting additional attention to this area of research. The self-location estimation process is an indefeasible capability that an unmanned vehicle should have. This process requires high accuracy that is hard to be achieved by mobile devices, usually having limited power and computing capabilities. The methods and techniques developed for these systems compete in terms of simplicity, performance, and accuracy. However, the majority of solutions focus on only one of these performance metrics and are not applicable to the projected systems. In this study, two new location estimation solutions that satisfy all three performance metrics (simplicity, accuracy, and efficiency) are developed. Accordingly, two accelerated variations of Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithms are used for the first time with line-of-sight (LOS) and single-bounced-scattering non line-of-sight (SBS NLOS) signal arriving approaches in the self-positioning process. The simplicity of the mathematical operations used, namely binary shift and add operations, makes our solutions hardware friendly. The second novelty of the study is the newly developed “Vector Breaking Method” (VBM) used for estimating the location of mobile objects using the arriving signals Bbounced from scatters with unknown locations. Test results using the developed algorithms show that the projected level of accuracy has been achieved. Furthermore, our solutions have presented better performance than the solutions currently available in the field. Keywords: 3D positioning, location estimation, LOS, line of sight, NLOS, non-line of sight, CORDIC, fast rotation algorithm, AOA, AOD, TOA, TDOA, EOTDO, CID, eCID, RSS, cellular wireless communication systems, One-bounced-scattering, hardware-oriented, antenna arrays, mobile object, base station, scatter, ACE algorithm, fixed angle rotation method, FARM, dynamic angle rotation method, DARM, vector breaking method, VBM, vector lengthening method, VLM, level of accuracy, computational cost, accuracy level.