Positioning of radio sources via estimation of direction of arrival

Positioning of a radio source is the estimation of location of the radio source in three dimensional (3-D) space with respect to a reference point. A system, based on positioning of radio sources can be used for pedestrian or vehicle tracking and navigation. The direction of arrival estimation of a signal emitted by a radio source can be used to estimate the location of the radio source. An antenna array system enables the direction of arrival estimation with proper array signal processing methods. The multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm has been the most widely used method that estimates the direction of arrival of a signal received by a uniform linear array antenna system. The estimation of the azimuth and the elevation angles of a signal can be used to determine the position of the signal source in 3-D space with respect to the spherical coordinate system. The main goal of this study is to design an active system that simultaneously determines the position of multiple radio sources via the estimation of direction of arrival. A Matlab based simulation software has been developed to examine performance of the active radio source positioning system.