TWO-DIMENSIONAL DIRECTION-OF-ARRIVAL ESTIMATION METHOD FOR COPRIME PLANAR ARRAY BASED ON STRUCTURED COARRAY TENSOR PROCESSING

Information

  • Patent Application
  • 20210373113
  • Publication Number
    20210373113
  • Date Filed
    August 13, 2021
    3 years ago
  • Date Published
    December 02, 2021
    3 years ago
Abstract
A two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing, the method includes: deploying a coprime planar array; modeling a tensor of the received signals; deriving the second-order equivalent signals of an augmented virtual array based on cross-correlation tensor transformation; deploying a three-dimensional coarray tensor of the virtual array; deploying a five-dimensional coarray tensor based on a coarray tensor dimension extension strategy; forming a structured coarray tensor including three-dimensional spatial information; and achieving two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation through CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition. The present disclosure constructs a processing framework of a structured coarray tensor based on statistical analysis of coprime planar array tensor signals, to achieve multi-source two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in the underdetermined case on the basis of ensuring the performance such as resolution and estimation accuracy, and can be used for multi-target positioning.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure belongs to the field of array signal processing technologies, and in particular, to a two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor signal processing, and can be used for multi-target positioning.


BACKGROUND

As a typical systematic sparse array architecture, a coprime array can break through the bottleneck of traditional uniform arrays with a limited degrees-of-freedom. In order to increase the degrees-of-freedom, the received signals of the coprime array are generally derived into an augmented virtual array, and the corresponding coarray signals are used for the subsequent processing. In order to improve the degree of freedom for two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation, much attention has been paid to the two-dimensional coarray signal processing. In a traditional two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method with the coprime planar array, a common approach is to derive coarray signals by vectorizing the second-order correlation statistics of the coprime array, and then extend the one-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method to a two-dimensional/high-dimensional scenarios, so as to achieve direction-of-arrival estimation through further coarray processing. The above approach destroys the multidimensional the original structure of the signals received by the coprime planar array, and the coarray signals derived from vectorization encounter the challenge of large scale and loss of structural information.


Tensor as a multidimensional data format, can be used to preserve the characteristics of the multidimensional signals. For feature analysis of multidimensional signals, high-order singular value decomposition and tensor decomposition methods provide abundant mathematical tools for tensor-based signal processing. In recent years, tensor has been widely applied in array signal processing, image signal processing, statistics, and other fields. Therefore, by using a tensor to represent the received signals of a coprime planar array and the corresponding coarray signals, the multidimensional structural information of signals can be retained effectively, which provides an important theoretical tool for improving the performance of direction-of-arrival estimation. At the same time, it is expected to achieve a breakthrough in the comprehensive performance of direction-of-arrival estimation in terms of resolution, estimation accuracy, and degree of freedom by extending the high-order singular value decomposition and tensor decomposition methods to the coarray domain. However, the coarray tensor-based processing for the coprime planar array has not been discussed in the existing methods, and two-dimensional coarray properties of the coprime planar array are not utilized. Therefore, it is an important problem urgently to be solved to design a direction-of-arrival estimation method with an enhanced degree of freedom based on the coprime planar array tensor model so as to achieve accurate direction-of-arrival estimation in the underdetermined case.


SUMMARY

An objective of the present disclosure is to provide a two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing with respect to the problem of loss of degrees-of-freedom in the existing methods, which provides an effective solution for establishing a relationship between the two-dimensional coarray and the tensor-based signals received by the coprime planar array, fully mining structural information of the two-dimensional coarray, and using structured coarray tensor construction and coarray tensor decomposition to achieve two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in the underdetermined case.


The objective of the present disclosure is achieved through the following technical solution: a two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing, including the following steps:


(1) deploying a coprime planar array with 4 MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors; wherein Mx, Nx and My, Ny are a pair of coprime integers respectively, and Mx<Nx, My<Ny; the coprime planar array can be decomposed into two sparse uniform subarrays custom-character1 and custom-character2;


(2) assuming that there are K far-field narrowband incoherent sources from directions {(θ1, φ1), (θ2, φ2), . . . , (θK, φK)}, the received signal of the sparse uniform subarray custom-character1 of the coprime planar array can be expressed as a three-dimensional tensor X1ϵcustom-character2Mx×2My×L (L denotes the number of snapshots):











1

=





k
=
1

K





a

M

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





a

M

y




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)




s
k



+

1



,












where sk=[sk,1, sk,2, . . . , sk,L]T denotes a signal waveform corresponding to the kth source, [⋅]T denotes a transpose operation, ∘ denotes an exterior product of vectors, custom-character1 denotes an additive Gaussian white noise tensor, and aMxk, φk) and aMyk, φk) denote the steering vectors of custom-character1 along the x-axis and the y-axis, respectively. aMxk, φk) and aMyk, φk) are defined as:












a

M

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,





e


-
j


π


u
1

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j


π


u
1

(

2


M
x


)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,







a

M

y




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j


π


v
1

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π







v
1



(

2


M
y


)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,












where u1(i1) (i1=1, 2, . . . , 2Mx) and v1(i2) (i2=1, 2, . . . , 2My) denote the positions of the i1th and i2th sensor in the sparse subarray custom-character1 along the x-axis and the y-axis with u1(1)=0, v1(1)=0, j=√{square root over (−1)};


denoting the received signals of the sparse uniform subarray custom-character2 by another three-dimensional tensor X2ϵcustom-characterNx×Ny×L:








2

=





k
=
1

K





a

N

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





a

N

y




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)




k



+

2



,




where custom-character2 denotes a noise tensor, and aNxk, φk) and aNyk, φk) denote the steering vectors of V2 along the x-axis and the y-axis respectively, which are defined as:









a
Nx



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,





e


-
j


π


u
2

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j


π


u
2

(

2


N
x


)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,







a
Ny



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j


π


v
2

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π







v
2



(

2


N
y


)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,




where u2(i3) (i3=1, 2, . . . , Nx) and v2(i4) (i4=1, 2, . . . , Ny) denote the positions of the i3th and i4th sensor in the sparse subarray custom-character2 along the x-axis and the y-axis with u2(1)=0, v2(1)=0;


calculating the second-order cross-correlation tensor custom-characterϵcustom-character2Mx×2My×Nx×Ny of the two three-dimensional tensor signals X1 and X2:










=


1
L






l
=
1

L




1




(
l
)



2
*




(
l
)





,












where X1(l) and X2(l) denote the lth slice of X1 and X2 along the third dimension (i.e., temporal dimension) respectively, and (⋅)* denotes a conjugate operation;


(3) deriving an augmented discontinuous virtual planar array custom-character from the cross-correlation tensor custom-character, where the position of each virtual sensor can be defined as:






custom-character={(Mxnxd+Nxmxd,−Mynyd+Nymyd)|0≤nx≤Nx−1,0≤mx≤2Mx−1,0≤ny≤Ny−1,0≤my≤2My−1},


where the spacing d is set to half of the signal wavelength λ, i.e., d=λ/2; S contains a virtual uniform planar array custom-character including (MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) virtual sensors with distributing from (−Nx+1)d to (MxNx+Mx−1)d in the x-axis and from (−Ny+1)d to (MyNy+My−1)d in the y-axis, which is defined as:






custom-character={(x,y)|x=pxd,y=pyd,−Nx+1≤px≤MxNx+Mx−1, −Ny+1≤py≤MyNy+My−1.},


defining dimension sets custom-character1={1, 3} and custom-character2={2, 4}, and reshaping the cross-correlation tensor custom-character (noiseless scene) with {custom-character1, custom-character2} to obtain an equivalent second-order signal Uϵcustom-character2Mx×2My×Nx×Ny of the augmented virtual planar array custom-character, which is ideally modeled as:






U
custom-character
custom-character

k=1
Kσx2axkkaykk),


where axk, φk)=a*Nxk, φk) aMxk, φk), ayk, φk)=a*Nyk, φk) aMyk, φk) denote steering vectors of the augmented virtual planar array custom-character along the x axis and they axis, σk2 denotes power of a kth source, and ⊗ denotes Kroneker product; the equivalent signal Ũϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character is obtained by selecting elements in U that corresponds to the virtual sensor positions in custom-character. Ũ is modeled as:






Ũ=Σ
k=1
Kσk2bxk,φkbykk),


where bxk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Nx+1)sin(φk)cos(θk), e−jπ(−Nx+2)sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . , e−jπ(MxNx+Mx+1)sin(φk)sin(θk)] and byk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Ny+1)sin(φk)sin(θk), e−jπ(−Ny+2)sin(φk)sin(θk), e−jπ(MyNy+My+1)sin(φk)sin(θk)] are the steering vectors of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character along the x axis and they axis;


(4) taking the symmetric part of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character, i.e., custom-character into account, which is defined as:






custom-character={{hacek over (x)},{hacek over (y)})|{hacek over (x)}={hacek over (p)}xd,{hacek over (y)}={hacek over (p)}yd,−MxNx−Mx+1≤{hacek over (p)}x≤Nx−1, −MyNy−My+1≤{hacek over (p)}y≤Ny−1}.


transforming elements in the equivalent signal Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character, to obtain an equivalent signal Ũsymϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) of the symmetric uniform planar array custom-character, which is defined as:






Ũ
symk=1Kσk2(bxkk)e(−MxNx−MxNx)sin(φk)sin(θk))·(bykk)e(−MyNy−MyNx)sin(φk)sin(θk)),


where e(−MxNx−MxNx)sin(φk)sin(θk) and e(−MyNy−MyNx)sin(φk)sin(θk)) are the symmetric factors in the x-axis and y-axis respectively


concatenating the equivalent signals Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character and the equivalent signals Ũsym of the symmetric virtual uniform planar array custom-character along the third dimension, to obtain a three-dimensional coarray tensor custom-characterϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1)×2, which is defined as:







=




k
=
1

K




σ
k
2





b
x



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





b
y



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





h
k



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)






,




where hk k, φk)=[1, e(−MxNx−Mx+Nx)sin(φk)cos(θk)+(−MyNy−My+Ny)sin(φy)sin(θy)]T denotes the symmetric factor vector;


(5) segmenting a subarray with a size of Px×Py from the virtual uniform planar array custom-character, and dividing the virtual uniform planar array custom-character into Lx×Ly partially overlapped uniform subarrays; denoting the subarray by custom-character(sx, sy), sx=1, 2, . . . , Lx, sy=1, 2, . . . , Ly, and expressing the position of the virtual sensor in custom-character(sx,sy) as:






custom-character
(s

x

,s

y

)={(x,y)|x=pxd,y=pyd,−Nx+sx≤px≤Nx+sx+Px−1, −Ny+sy≤py≤−Ny+sy+Py−1}.


obtaining a sub-coarray tensor custom-character(sx, sy)ϵcustom-characterPx×Py×2 corresponding to custom-character(sx, sy) by selecting elements in the coarray tensor custom-character according to the positions of virtual sensors in the sub array custom-character(sx, sy):






custom-character
(s

x

,s

y

)k=1Kσk2(cxkk)e(sx−1)sin(φk)cos(θk))·(cykk)e(sy−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)·hkkk),


where cxk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Nx+1)sin(φk)cos(θk), e−jπ(−Nx+2)sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . ,


e−jπ(−Nx+Px)sin(φk)cos(θk)] and cyk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Ny+1)sin(φk)sin(θk),


e−jπ(−Ny+2)sin(φk)sin(θk), . . . , e−jπ(−Ny+Py)sin(φk)sin(θk)] are the steering vectors of the virtual subarray custom-character(1,1) along the x axis and they axis; after the above operations, a total of Lx×Ly three-dimensional sub-coarray tensors custom-character(sx, sy) whose dimensions are all Px×Py×2 are obtained; the sub-coarray tensors custom-character(sx, sy) with the same index subscript sy are concatenated along the fourth dimension, to obtain Ly four-dimensional tensors of size Px×Py×2×Lx; and the Ly four-dimensional tensors are further concatenated along the fifth dimension, to obtain a five-dimensional tensor custom-characterϵcustom-characterPx×Py×2×Lx×Ly, which is defined as:






custom-characterk−1Kσk2cxkkcykkhkkkdxkkdykk),


where dxk, φk)=[1, e−jπ sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . , e−jπ(Lx−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)], dyk, φk)=[1, e−jπ sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . , e−jπ(Ly−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)] are the shifting factor vectors along the x-axis and the y-axis, respectively;


(6) defining dimensional sets custom-character1={1, 2}, custom-character2={3}, custom-character3={4, 5}, by reshaping custom-character with {custom-character1, custom-character2, custom-character3}, i.e., combining the first and second dimensions of the five-dimensional tensor custom-character, combining the fourth and fifth dimensions, and retaining the third dimension, a three-dimensional structured coarray tensor custom-characterϵcustom-characterPxPy×2×LxLy is obtained as:






custom-character
custom-character
custom-characterk=1Kσk2gkkhkkfkk),


where g(θk, φk)=cyk, φk)⊗cxk, φk), f(θk, φk)=dyk, φk)⊗dxk, φk); and


(7) performing CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition on the three-dimensional structured coarray tensor custom-character, to obtain a closed-form solution of two-dimensional direction-of-arrivals in the underdetermined case.


Further, the structure of the coprime planar array in step (1) is specifically described as follows: a pair of sparse uniform planar subarrays custom-character1 and custom-character2 are constructed on a coordinate system xoy, where custom-character1 includes 2Mx×2My sensors, the spacing between sensors in the x-axis direction and the spacing in the y-axis direction are Nxd and Nyd respectively, and the sensor coordinates on the xoy plane are {(Nxdmx, Nydmy), mx=0, 1, . . . , 2Mx−1, my=0, 1, . . . , 2My−1}; custom-character2 includes Nx×Ny sensors, the spacing between sensors in the x-axis direction and array element spacing in the y-axis direction are Mxd and Myd respectively, and the sensor coordinates on the xoy plane are {(Mxdnx, Mydny), nx=0, 1, . . . , Nx−1, ny=0, 1, . . . , Ny−1}; herein, Mx, Nx and My, Ny are a pair of coprime integers respectively, and Mx≤Nx, My≤Ny; since the subarray custom-character1 and custom-character2 only overlap at the origin of the coordinate system (0,0), the coprime planar array includes 4MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors.


Further, the cross-correlation tensor custom-character in step (3) is ideally modeled (noiseless scene) as:






custom-characterk=1Kσk2aMxkkaMykka*Nxkka*Nykk)


aMxk, φk)·a*Nxk, φk) in the cross-correlation tensor custom-character can derive an augmented coarray along the x axis, and aMyk, φk)·a*Nyk, φk) can derive an augmented coarray along the y axis, so as to obtain the augmented discontinuous virtual planar array custom-character.


Further, the equivalent signals of the symmetric custom-character in step (4) is obtained by the transformation of the equivalent signals Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character, which specifically includes: performing a conjugate operation on Ũ to obtain Ũ*, and flipping elements in Ũ* left and right and then up and down, to obtain the equivalent signals Ũsym of the symmetric uniform planar array custom-character.


Further, the concatenation of the equivalent signals Ũ of custom-character and the equivalent signals Ũsym of custom-character along the third dimension, to obtain a three-dimensional coarray tensor custom-character in step (4) includes: performing CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition on custom-character to achieve two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in the underdetermined case.


Further, in step (7), CANDECOMP/PARAFAC decomposition is performed in the three-dimensional structured coarray tensor custom-character, to obtain three factor matrixes, G=[g({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), g({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , g({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], H=[h({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), h({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , h({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], F=[f({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), f({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , f({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)]; where ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k), k=1, 2, . . . , K is the estimations of (θk, φk), k=1, 2, . . . , K; elements in the second row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in the first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k), and elements in the Px+1th row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in the first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k); after a similar parameter retrieval operation from the factor matrix F, averaging and logarithm processing are performed on parameters extracted from G and F respectively, to obtain ûk=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k) and {circumflex over (v)}k=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)sin({circumflex over (θ)}k), and then the closed-form solution of the two-dimensional azimuth and elevation angles ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k) is:








θ
^

k

=



arctan


(


k


k


)


.






φ
^

k


=




k
2

+

k
2



.






in the above step, CANDECOMP/PARAFAC decomposition follows the following unique condition:






custom-character
rank(G)+custom-characterrank(H)+custom-characterrank(F)≥2K+2,


where custom-characterrank(⋅) denotes a Kruskal's rank of a matrix, and custom-characterrank(G)=min(PxPy, K), custom-characterrank(H)=min(LxLy, K), custom-characterrank(F)=min(2, K), min(⋅) denotes a minimization operation;


optimal Px and Py values are obtained according to the above inequality, so as to obtain a theoretical maximum value of K, i.e., a theoretical upper bound of distinguishable sources, is obtained by ensuring that the uniqueness condition is satisfied; herein, the value of K exceeds the total number of physical sensors in the coprime planar array 4MxMy+NxNy−1.


Compared with the prior art, the present disclosure has the following advantages:


(1) In the present disclosure, the received signals of a coprime planar array are represented by a tensor, which is different from the technical means of representing two-dimensional space information by vectorization and averaging snapshot information to obtain the correlation statistics in the traditional matrix method. In the present disclosure, snapshot information is superimposed in a third dimension, and a cross-correlation tensor including four-dimensional space information is obtained through cross-correlation statistical analysis of tensor signals, which saves space structure information of original multidimensional signals.


(2) In the present disclosure, coarray statistics are derived from a four-dimensional cross-correlation tensor, and dimensions in the cross-correlation tensor that represent coarray information in the same direction are combined, so as to derive the equivalent signals of the augmented virtual arrays, which overcomes that the coarray equivalent signal derived by the traditional matrix method has problems such as loss of structural information and a large linear scale.


(3) In the present disclosure, a three-dimensional tensor signal is further constructed in a coarray on the basis of constructing the equivalent signals of the virtual array, so as to establish an association between a two-dimensional coarray and the tensorial space, which provides a theoretical pre-condition for obtaining a closed-form solution of two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation by tensor decomposition and also lays a foundation for the construction of a structured coarray tensor and the increase of degrees-of-freedom.


(4) In the present disclosure, the number of degrees-of-freedom of the coarray tensor processing method is effectively improved by dimension extension of the coarray tensor signal and the construction of the structured coarray tensor, thereby achieving two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in the underdetermined case.





BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS


FIG. 1 is an overall flow diagram according to the present disclosure;



FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a coprime planar array according to the present disclosure;



FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an augmented virtual planar array derived according to the present disclosure;



FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a dimension extension process of a coarray tensor signal of a coprime planar array according to the present disclosure; and



FIG. 5 is an effect diagram of multi-source direction-of-arrival estimation in a method according to the present disclosure.





DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The technical solution of the present disclosure will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.


In order to solve the problem of loss of degrees-of-freedom in the existing methods, the present disclosure provides a two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing, which establishes an association between a coprime planar array coarray domain and second-order tensor statistics in combination with means such as multi-linear analysis, coarray tensor signal construction, and coarray tensor decomposition, so as to achieve two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in an underdetermined condition. Referring to FIG. 1, the present disclosure is implemented through the following steps:


Step 1: A coprime planar array is deployed. The coprime planar array is deployed with 4 MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors at a receiving end. As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of sparse uniform planar subarrays custom-character1 and custom-character2 are constructed on a coordinate system xoy plane, wherein custom-character1 includes 2Mx×2My sensors, spacing in the x-axis direction and spacing in the y-axis direction are Nxd and Nyd respectively, and position coordinates thereof on the xoy are {(Nxdmx, Nydmy), mx=0, 1, . . . , 2Mx−1, my=0, 1, . . . , 2My−1}; custom-character2 includes Nx×Ny sensors, spacing in the x-axis direction and spacing in the y-axis direction are Mxd and Myd respectively, and position coordinates thereof on the xoy are {(Mxdnx, Mydny), nx=0, 1, . . . , Nx−1, ny=0, 1, . . . , Ny−1}, Mx, Nx and My, Ny are a pair of coprime integers respectively, and Mx<Nx, My<Ny. A spacing d is set to half of an incident narrowband signal wavelength λ, i.e., d=λ/2. Subarray combination is performed on custom-character1 and custom-character2 according to overlap of sensors at a position of a coordinate system (0,0), to obtain a coprime planar array actually including 4MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors.


Step 2: The tensor signals of the coprime planar array is modeled. Assuming that there are K far-field narrowband incoherent sources from {(θ1, φ1), (θ2, φ2), . . . , (θK, φK)} directions, a three-dimensional tensor X1ϵcustom-character2Mx×2My×L (L denotes the number of sampling snapshots) may be obtained after sampling snapshots on the sparse uniform subarray custom-character1 of the coprime planar array are superimposed in the third dimension, which is modeled as:








1

=





k
=
1

K





a

M

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





a

M

y




(


θ
k

,
φ

)




k



+

1



,




wherein Sk=[sk,1, sk,2, . . . , sk,L]T denotes a multi-snapshot signal waveform corresponding to the kth source, [⋅]T denotes a transpose operation, ∘ denotes an exterior product of vectors, custom-character1 denotes an additive Gaussian white noise tensor, and aMxk, φk) and aMyk, φk) denote steering vectors of custom-character1 in x-axis and y-axis directions respectively, corresponding to the source from direction (θk, φk), and are defined as:












a
Mx



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j






π






u
1

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π






u
1

(

2

Mx

)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,







a
My



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j


π


v
1

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π






v
1

(

2

My

)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,












wherein u1(i1)(i1=1, 2, . . . , 2Mx) and v1(i2)(i2=1, 2, . . . , 2My) denote actual positions of i1th and i2th physical sensors in the sparse subarray custom-character1 in the x-axis and y-axis directions, and u1(1)=0, v1(1))=0, j=√{square root over (−1)}.


Similarly, a received signals of the sparse uniform subarray custom-character2 may be defined by another three-dimensional tensor X2ϵcustom-characterNx×Ny×L:








2

=





k
=
1

K





a

N

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





a

N

y




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)




s
k



+

2



,




wherein custom-character2 denotes a noise tensor, and aNxk, φk) and aNyk, φk) denote the steering vectors of custom-character2 in the x-axis and y-axis directions respectively, corresponding to a signal source from direction (θk, φk), and are defined as:












a

N

x




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j






π






u
2

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π






u
2

(
Nx
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




cos


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,







a

N

y




(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)


=


[

1
,

e


-
j


π


v
2

(
2
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)




,





,

e


-
j






π






v
2

(
Ny
)




sin


(

φ
k

)




sin


(

θ
k

)





]

T


,












wherein u2(i3)(i3=1, 2, . . . , Nx) and v2(i4)(i4=1, 2, . . . , Ny) denote actual positions of i3th and i4th physical sensors in the sparse subarray custom-character2 in the x-axis and y-axis directions, and u2(1)=0, v2(1)=0.


Cross-correlation statistics of three-dimensional tensors X1 and X2 sampled by the sparse subarrays custom-character1 and custom-character2 is calculated, to obtain the second-order cross-correlation tensor custom-characterϵcustom-character2Mx×2My×Nx×Ny including four-dimensional spatial information:










=


1
L






l
=
1

L




1




(
l
)



2
*




(
l
)





,












wherein X1(l) and X2(l) denote the lth slice of X1 and X2 in the third dimension (i.e., temporal dimension) respectively, and (⋅)* denotes a conjugate operation.


Step 3: A second-order equivalent signals of the virtual array associated with coprime planar array based on cross-correlation tensor statistics is derived. The cross-correlation tensor custom-character of the received tensor signals of the two subarrays may be ideally modeled (noiseless scene) as:






custom-characterk−1Kσk2aMxkkaMykka*Nxkka*Nykk),


wherein σk2 denotes power of the kth source. In this case, aMxk, φk)·a*Nxk, φk) in the cross-correlation tensor custom-character is equivalent to an augmented coarray along the x axis, and aMyk, φk)·a*Nyk, φk) is equivalent to an augmented coarray along the y axis, so as to obtain the augmented discontinuous virtual planar array custom-character. As shown in FIG. 3, a position of each virtual sensor is defined as:






custom-character={(−Mxnxd+Nxmxd,−Mynyd+Nymyd)|0≤nx≤Nx−1,0≤mx≤2Mx−1,0≤ny≤Ny−1,0≤my≤2My−1}.



custom-character contains a virtual uniform planar array custom-character including (MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) virtual sensors with x-axis distribution from (−Nx+1)d to (MxNx+Mx−1)d and y-axis distribution from (−Ny+1)d to (MyNy+My−1)d, as shown in the dashed box of FIG. 3, which is specifically defined as:






custom-character={(x,y)|x=pxd,y=pyd,−Nx+1≤px≤MxNx+Mx−1, −Ny+1≤py≤MyNy+My−1}.


In order to obtain the equivalent signals of the augmented virtual planar array custom-character, there is a need to combine the first and third dimensions in the cross-correlation tensor custom-character that represent the spatial information in the x-axis direction into one dimension and combine second and fourth dimensions that represent spatial information in the y-axis direction into another dimension. Dimension combination of tensors can be achieved by the tensor reshaping operation. Taking a four-dimensional tensor custom-characterϵcustom-character11×I2×I3×I4r=1Rb11·b12·b21·b22 as an example, dimension sets custom-character1={1, 2} and custom-character2={3, 4} are defined, and then unfolding of a module {custom-character1, custom-character2} of PARAFAC decomposition of custom-character is as follows:








B




I
1



I
2

×

I
3



I
4






=
Δ





{


𝕋
1

,

𝕋
12


}


=




τ
=
1

R




b
1



b
2





,




wherein the tensor subscript denotes the tensor reshaping; b1=b12 ⊗b11 and b2=b22 ⊗b21 denote factor vectors of two dimensions after the unfolding respectively. Herein, ⊗ denotes Kroneker product. Therefore, dimension sets custom-character1={1, 3} and custom-character2={2, 4} are defined, and a module {custom-character1, custom-character2} of reshaping is performed for an ideal value custom-character (noiseless scene) of the cross-correlation tensor custom-character, to obtain an equivalent second-order signals Uϵcustom-character2MxNx×2MyNy of the augmented virtual planar array custom-character:






U
custom-character
custom-character
Σ
k=1
Kσk2axkkaykk),


wherein axk, φk)=a*Nxk, φk)⊗aMxk, φk), ayk, φk)=a*Nyk, φk)⊗aMyk, φk) denote steering vectors of the augmented virtual planar array custom-character corresponding to a (θk, φk) direction on the x axis and the y axis. Based on the above derivation, the equivalent signals Ũϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character is obtained by selecting elements in U corresponding to virtual sensor positions in custom-character, which is modeled as:








U
~

=




k
=
1

K




σ
k
2





b
x



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





b
y



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)






,




where bxk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Nx+1)sin(φk)cos(θk), e−jπ(−Nx+2)sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . ,


e−jπ(MxNx+Mx+1)sin(φk)sin(θk)] and byk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Ny+1)sin(φk)sin(θk),


e−jπ(−Ny+2)sin(φk)sin(θk), e−jπ(MyNy+My+1)sin(φk)sin(θk)] Denote steering vectors of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character corresponding to the (θk, φk) direction on the x axis and the y axis.


Step 4: A three-dimensional tensor signal of the coprime planar array virtual domain is constructed. In order to increase an effective aperture of the virtual planar array and further improve the degree of freedom, a symmetric extension custom-character of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character is taken into account, which is defined as:






custom-character={{hacek over (x)},{hacek over (y)})|{hacek over (x)}={hacek over (p)}xd,{hacek over (y)}={hacek over (p)}yd,−MxNx−Mx+1≤{hacek over (p)}x≤Nx−1, −MyNy−My+1≤{hacek over (p)}y≤Ny−1}.


In order to obtain the equivalent signals of the symmetric uniform planar array custom-character, the equivalent signal Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character may be transformed specifically as follows: performing a conjugate operation on Ũ to obtain Ũ*, and flipping elements in Ũ* left and right and then up and down, to obtain the equivalent signal Ũsymϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1) corresponding to the symmetric uniform planar array custom-character, which is defined as:






Ũ
symk=1Kσk2(bxkk)e(−MxNx−MxNx)sin(φk)sin(θk))·(bykk)e(−MyNy−MyNx)sin(φk)sin(θk)),


where e(−MxNx−MxNx)sin(φk)sin(θk) and e(−MyNy−MyNx)sin(φk)sin(θk)) denote symmetric factors in the x-axis and y-axis directions respectively when mirror transformation is performed on the virtual uniform planar array custom-character.


The equivalent signals Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array custom-character and the equivalent signal Ũsym of the symmetric uniform planar array custom-character are superimposed in the third dimension, to obtain a three-dimensional coarray tensor custom-characterϵcustom-character(MxNx+Mx+Nx−1)×(MyNy+My+Ny−1)×2 for the coprime planar array, the structure thereof is as shown in FIG. 4, and the three-dimensional coarray tensor is defined as:







=




k
=
1

K




σ
k
2





b
x



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





b
y



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)





h
k



(


θ
k

,

φ
k


)






,




wherein hk k, φk)=[1, e(−MxNx−Mx+Nx)sin(φk)cos(θk)+(−MyNy−My+Ny)sin(φy)sin(θy)]T denotes symmetric transformation factor vector.


Step 5: A five-dimensional coarray tensor is constructed based on a coarray tensor dimension extension strategy. As shown in FIG. 4, a subarray with a size of Px×Py is taken, from the virtual uniform planar array custom-character, every other sensor along the x-axis and y-axis directions respectively, and then the virtual uniform planar array custom-character may be divided into Lx×Ly uniform subarrays partially overlapping each other. Lx, Ly, Px, Py satisfy the following relations:






P
x
+L
x−1=MxNx+Mx+Nx−1,






P
y
+L
y−1=MyNy+My+Ny−1.


The subarray is defined as custom-character(sx,sy), sx=1, 2, . . . , Lx, sy=1, 2, . . . , Ly, and a position of an virtual sensor in custom-character(sx,sy) is defined as:






custom-character
(s

x

,s

y

)={(x,y)|x=pxd,y=pyd,−Nx+sx≤px≤−Nx+sx+Px−1, −Ny+sy≤py≤−Ny+sy+Py−1}.


A tensor signal custom-character(sx,sy)ϵcustom-characterPx×Py×2 in the virtual subarray custom-character(sx,sy) is obtained according to corresponding position elements in a coarray tensor signal custom-character corresponding to the subarray custom-character(sx,sy).






custom-character
(s

x

,s

y

)k=1Kσk2(cxkk)e(sx−1)sin(φk)cos(θk))·(cykk)e(sy−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)·hkkk),


where cxk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Nx+1)sin(φk)cos(θk), e−jπ(−Nx+2)sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . ,


e−jπ(−Nx+Px)sin(φk)cos(θk)] and cyk, φk)=[e−jπ(−Ny+1)sin(φk)sin(θk),


e−jπ(−Ny+2)sin(φk)sin(θk), . . . , e−jπ(−Ny+Py)sin(φk)sin(θk)] denote steering vectors of a virtual subarray custom-character1,1) corresponding to the (θk, φk) direction on the x axis and they axis. After the above operations, a total of Lx×Ly three-dimensional tensors custom-character(sx, sy) whose dimensions are all Px×Py×2 are obtained. In order to extend the dimension of the coarray tensor, firstly, tensors in the three-dimensional sub-coarray tensors custom-character(sx, sy) with the same index subscript sy are concatenated in the fourth dimension, to obtain Ly four-dimensional tensors with size of Px×Py×2×Lx; and further, the Ly four-dimensional tensors are concatenated in the fifth dimension, to obtain a five-dimensional coarray tensor custom-characterϵcustom-characterPx×Py×2×Lx×Ly which is defined as:






custom-characterk=1Kσk2cxkkcykkhkkkdxkkdkk),


where dxk, φk)=[1, e−jπ sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . , e−jπ(Lx−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)], dyk, φk)=[1, e−jπ sin(φk)cos(θk), . . . , e−jπ(Ly−1)sin(φk)cos(θk)] denote the shifting factor vectors corresponding to the x-axis and y-axis directions respectively during coarray tensor dimension extension and construction.


Step 6: A structured coarray tensor including three-dimensional spatial information is formed. In order to obtain the structured coarray tensor, the five-dimensional coarray tensor custom-character after dimension extension is combined along first and second dimensions representing angular information and is also combined along fourth and fifth dimensions representing shifting information, and the third dimension representing symmetric transformation information is retained, which includes the following specific operations: defining dimension sets custom-character1={1, 2}, custom-character2={3}, custom-character3={4, 5}, and unfolding a module {custom-character1, custom-character2, custom-character3} of reshaping of custom-character, to obtain a three-dimensional structured coarray tensor custom-characterϵcustom-characterPxPy×2×LxLy:






custom-character
custom-character
custom-characterk=1Kσk2gkkhkkfkk),


where g(θk, φk)=cyk, φk)⊗cxk, φk), f(θk, φk)=dyk, φk)⊗dxk, φk). Three dimensions of the structured coarray tensor custom-character represent angular information, symmetric transformation information, and shifting information respectively.


Step 7: Two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation is obtained through CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition of the structured coarray tensor. CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition is performed on the three-dimensional structured coarray tensor custom-character, to obtain three factor matrixes, G=[g({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), g({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , g({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], H=[h({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), h({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , h({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], F=[f({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), f({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , f({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)]; where ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k), k=1, 2, . . . , K is the estimated value of each incident angle (θk, φk), k=1, 2, . . . , K; elements in the second row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in the first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k), and elements in the Px+1th row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in the first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k); after a similar parameter retrieval operation is also performed on the factor matrix F, averaging and logarithm processing are performed on parameters extracted from G and F respectively, to obtain ûk=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k) and {circumflex over (v)}k=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)sin({circumflex over (θ)}k), and then the closed-form solution of the two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k) is:









θ
^

k

=

arctan


(


k




k



)



,







φ
^

k

=




k
2

+

k
2



.






In the above step, CANDECOMP/PARAFAC decomposition follows the following uniqueness condition:






custom-character
rank(G)+custom-characterrank(H)+custom-characterrank(F)≥2K+2,


wherein custom-characterrank(⋅) denotes a Kruskal's rank of a matrix, and custom-characterrank(G)=min(PxPy, K), custom-characterrank(H)=min(Lx, Ly, K), custom-characterrank(F)=min(2, K), min(⋅) denotes a minimization operation.


Optimal Px and Py values are obtained according to the above inequality, so as to obtain a theoretical maximum value of K, i.e., a theoretical upper bound of the distinguishable sources, is obtained by ensuring that the uniqueness condition is satisfied. Herein, the value of K exceeds the total number 4MxMy+NxNy−1 of actual physical sensors of the coprime planar array due to construction and processing of the structured coarray tensor, which indicates that the degrees-of-freedom of direction-of-arrival estimation is improved.


The effect of the present disclosure is further described below with reference to a simulation example.


Simulation example: a coprime planar array is used to receive incident signals, parameters thereof are selected as Mx=2, My=3, Nx=3, Ny=4, that is, the coprime planar array includes a total of 4MxMy+NxNy 1=35 physical sensors. Assuming that the number of incident narrowband sources is 50 and azimuth angles in an incident direction are evenly distributed over [−65°, 5°]∪[5°, 65° ], elevation angles are evenly distributed within a space angle domain range of [5°, 65° ]. 500 noiseless sampling snapshots are used for a simulation experiment.


Estimation results of the two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing provided in the present disclosure are as shown in FIG. 5, among which x and y axes represent elevation and azimuth angles of incident signal sources respectively. It can be seen that the method provided in the present disclosure can effectively distinguish the 50 incident sources. For the traditional direction-of-arrival estimation method using a uniform planar array, 35 physical sensors can be used to distinguish only at most 34 incident signals. The above results indicate that the method provided in the present disclosure achieves the increase of the degree of freedom.


Based on the above, the present disclosure fully considers an association between a two-dimensional coarray of a coprime planar array and the tensorial space, derives the coarray equivalent signals through second-order statistic analysis of the tensor signal, and retains structural information of the multi-dimensional received signal and the coarray. Moreover, coarray tensor dimension extension and structured coarray tensor construction mechanisms are established, which lays a theoretical foundation for maximizing the number of degrees-of-freedom. Finally, the present disclosure performs multidimensional feature extraction on the structured coarray tensor to form a closed-form solution of two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation, and achieves a breakthrough in the degree of freedom performance.


The above are only preferred implementations of the present disclosure. Although the present disclosure has been disclosed above with preferred embodiments, the preferred embodiments are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Any person skilled in the art can make, without departing from the scope of the technical solution of the present disclosure, many possible variations and modifications to the technical solution of the present disclosure or modify the technical solution as equivalent embodiments of equivalent changes by using the method and technical contents disclosed above. Therefore, any simple alteration, equivalent change, or modification made to the above embodiments according to the technical essence of the present disclosure without departing from the contents of the technical solution of the present disclosure still fall within the protection scope of the technical solution of the present disclosure.

Claims
  • 1. A two-dimensional direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor signal processing, comprising following steps of: (1) deploying a coprime planar array with 4 MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors; wherein Mx, Nx and My, Ny are pairs of coprime integers respectively, and Mx≤Nx, My<Ny; the coprime planar array is decomposed into two sparse uniform subarrays 1 and 2;(2) assuming that there are K far-field narrowband incoherent sources from directions {(θ1, φ1), (θ2, φ2), . . . , (θK, φK)}, the received signals of the sparse uniform subarray 1 of the coprime planar array is expressed by a three-dimensional tensor X1ϵ2Mx×2My×L (L denotes a number of sampling snapshots):
  • 2. The two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing according to claim 1, wherein the structure of the coprime planar array in step (1) is specifically described as follows: a pair of sparse uniform planar subarrays 1 and 2 is constructed on a coordinate system xoy, wherein 1 comprises 2Mx×2My sensors, the spacing in the x-axis direction and the spacing in the y-axis direction are Nxd and Nyd, respectively, and sensor coordinates thereof on the xoy plane are {(Nxdmx, Nydmy), mx=0, 1, . . . , 2Mx−1, my=0, 1, . . . , 2My−1}; 2 comprises Nx×Ny sensors, the spacing in the x-axis direction and the spacing in the y-axis direction are Mxd and Myd, respectively, and the sensor coordinates on the xoy plane are {(Mxdnx, My dny), nx=0, 1, . . . , Nx−1, ny=0, 1, . . . , Ny−1}; Mx, Nx and My, Ny are a pair of coprime integers respectively, and Mx<Nx, My<Ny; since the subarray 1 and 2 only overlap at an origin of the coordinate system (0,0), a coprime planar array comprising 4MxMy+NxNy−1 physical sensors.
  • 3. The two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing according to claim 1, wherein the cross-correlation tensor in step (3) is ideally modeled (noiseless scene) as: =Σk−1Kσk2aMx(θk,φk)·aMy(θk,φk)·a*Nx(θk,φk)·a*Ny(θk,φk),aMx(θk, φk)·a*Mx(θk, φk) in the cross-correlation tensor derives augmented coarray along the x axis, and aMy(θk, φk)·a*Ny(θk, φk) derives an augmented coarray along the y axis, so as to obtain the augmented discontinuous virtual planar array .
  • 4. The two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing according to claim 1, wherein the equivalent signals of the symmetric of the virtual uniform planar array in step (4) is obtained by transformation of the equivalent signals Ũ of the virtual uniform planar array , which specifically comprises: performing a conjugate operation on Ũ to obtain Ũ*, and flipping elements in Ũ* left and right and then up and down, to obtain the equivalent signals Ũsym of the symmetric uniform planar array .
  • 5. The two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing according to claim 1, wherein the concatenation of the equivalent signals Ũ and the equivalent signals Ũsym of along the third dimension, to obtain a three-dimensional coarray tensor in step (4) comprises: performing CANDECOMP/PARACFAC decomposition on to achieve two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation in the overdetermined case.
  • 6. The two-dimensional direction-of-arrival estimation method for a coprime planar array based on structured coarray tensor processing according to claim 1, wherein in step (7), CANDECOMP/PARAFAC decomposition is performed on the three-dimensional structured coarray tensor , to obtain three factor matrixes, G=[g({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), g({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , g({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], H=[h({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), h({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , h({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)], F=[f({circumflex over (θ)}1, {circumflex over (φ)}1), f({circumflex over (θ)}2, {circumflex over (φ)}2), . . . , f({circumflex over (θ)}K, {circumflex over (φ)}K)]; wherein ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k), k=1, 2, . . . , K is an estimation of (θk, φk), k=1, 2, . . . , K; elements in a second row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in a first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k), elements in the Px+1th row in the factor matrix G are divided by elements in the first row to obtain e−jπ sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k), after a similar parameter retrieval operation on the factor matrix F, averaging and logarithm processing are performed to parameters extracted from G and F, respectively, to obtain ûk=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)cos({circumflex over (θ)}k) and {circumflex over (v)}k=sin({circumflex over (φ)}k)sin({circumflex over (θ)}k), and then a closed-form solution of the two-dimensional azimuth and elevation angles ({circumflex over (θ)}k, {circumflex over (φ)}k) is:
Continuations (1)
Number Date Country
Parent PCT/CN2020/088569 May 2020 US
Child 17401345 US