Geometric model based directional sensing of electromagnetic waves and prototype implementation

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel direction-of-arrival (DoA) technique based on phase differences of electromagnetic waves. In detail, design and implementation issues for the DoA directional sensing are described, towards providing an efficient solution to mobile robot target tracking for various applications. What is the most important aspect from the practical point of view is how to realize accurate measurements of the bearing from an electromagnetic spot source. For the purpose, a DoA estimation model is proposed using a minimum number of antennas. Another focus lies in the implementation of an in-house DoA detection prototype considering the simplicity and generality of hardware configurations. This paper explains details of a purpose-built, cost-efficient solution ranging from the estimation model design to its hardware implementation suitable for autonomous robot navigation. Experimental results show that the proposed method for the DoA estimation and its hardware prototype can be considered quite satisfactory in an indoor environment.