Passive Positioning from Azimuth Difference of Opportunistic Signals Without Attitude Measurement

Abstract

Multi-station directional crossover technique is a commonly used passive localization technique. In contrast to this technique, in the field of radio localization of sensor network nodes, multiple radiation sources with known locations can also be used to localize nodes with unknown locations that are capable of receiving radio signals emitted from the sources, i.e., the nodal direction finding cross-location method. The nodal direction finding cross-location method requires attitude measurement, and since attitude measurement has errors and increases the size, weight and cost of the node. This paper proposes to use the incoming azimuth difference measured at the node to localize the node, which does not require attitude measurement. We verify through simulation that the method ensures localization accuracy while saving attitude measurement, which is of great importance in engineering practice. The influence of various measurement parameters in the positioning system on positioning accuracy is also analyzed, among which orientation accuracy is the main influencing factor of positioning accuracy.