On Proper Antenna Pattern for a Simple Source Detection and Localization System

This paper proposes a simple and practical passive system for detection and direction finding of a far-field signal source. The proposed system receives signal emitted from a far away source using a set of similar directional antennas. The envelope of the received signals are used both to detect the existence of a pulse and to estimate it´s bearing angle. We determine a set of design constraints on the employed antennas pattern such that the processing algorithm be simple and practical which operates in a wide frequency range at each instant. We evaluate the required constrains on the shape of antenna´s pattern and we study the performance of the proposed algorithm. It is shown that simple antennas can be efficiently utilized in this system.