Delay Estimation for Two Objects by Using Blind Beamforming on a Randomly Distributed Sensor Array

In this paper we propose a new method to determine the time difference of arrivals (TDOAs) for two objects. Using the estimation of TDOAs and the known algorithms such as least square (LS) or constrained least square (CLS), we can determine the locations of the two objects simultaneously. The main contribution is to determine the eigen vectors that are close to the received signals, based on the minimum error criteria. Two eigen vectors are selected by this method, where each is used to estimate TDOAs for corresponding source. Simulation results indicate that this method yields accurate performance, with most, if not all, of the estimated TDOA values are identical to the original ones, for different source locations.