Radar target doa estimation: Moving window VS AML estimator

Abstract

In this paper we compare two radar target direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms, the classical moving window (MW) and the asymptotic maximum likelihood (AML) estimators. The first technique for azimuth DOA estimation exploits multiple detections in the same time-on-target and the second one exploits the fact that the radar antenna mechanical scanning impresses an amplitude modulation on the signals backscattered by the target. Performances of the estimators are numerically investigated through Monte Carlo simulation in terms of root-mean-square-error (RMSE), probability of detection for a fixed probability of false alarm, and probability of "splitting". The obtained results show that the asymptotic maximum likelihood estimator generally outperforms the classical moving window estimator.