Ultra-Wideband Angle of Arrival Estimation Based on Angle-Dependent Antenna Transfer Function

Abstract

Ultra-wideband radio signals are used in communication, indoor localization and radar systems, due to the high data rates, the high resilience to fading and the fine temporal resolution that can be achieved with a large bandwidth. This paper introduces a new method to estimate the angle of arrival of ultra-wideband radio signals with which existing time-of-flight based localization and radar systems can be augmented at no additional hardware cost. The method does not require multiple transmitter or receiver antennas, or relative motion between transmitter and receiver. Instead, it is solely based on the angle-dependent impulse response function of ultra-wideband antennas. Datasets on which the method is evaluated are publicly available. The method is further applied to a localization problem and it is shown how a robot can self-localize solely based on these angle of arrival estimates, and how they can be combined with time-of-flight measurements. Even though existing angle of arrival techniques that use multiple antennas show better accuracy, the method presented herein looks promising enough to be developed further and could potentially lead to electronically and mechanically simpler angle of arrival estimation technology.

Deep Learning for Counting People from UWB Channel Impulse Response Signals

“… The format of CIR data and the configuration diagram for each layer [ 22 ]. denotes the element of the CIR input signal.…”

Machine Learning-Based Angle of Arrival Estimation for Ultra-Wide Band Radios

“…Although almost all AoA estimation methods rely on the reception of the signal by an array of antennas (or one antenna that moves to different positions), [10] and [11] propose a single-antenna AoA estimation approach. Single antenna AoA estimation algorithms either require more complicated hardware [10] or exploit the angle-dependent property of the transmitter and receiver antenna pattern [11]. In the latter approach, the AoA estimator maps the CIR to AoA for one specific convolution of the impulse response of the transmit antenna, channel, and receive antenna.…”