Attractive passive direct positioning algorithm for localisation of multiple transmitters based on eigenvalue maximizing

In terms of the passive position determination problem, the most commonly used methods are based on two-step processing. While here, the authors propose a technique that estimates the locations of transmitters by processing the raw signals from all receivers at the central processor, which belongs to the direct position determination (DPD) concept. There are already efforts made on single target localisation through eigenvalue maximising based on the DPD technique. While the multi-target case encountered more commonly in realistic scenarios. By additionally combined with the image expansion algorithm, the sources can be extracted effectively and their positions are determined simultaneously. Simulation results illustrate that the localisation accuracy for each transmitter is equivalent to the two-step based approach at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). While for low SNR, the superiority and accuracy of the proposed method are also manifested.