Uniform and non-uniform V-shaped arrays for 2-D DOA estimation

In this study, a new method for optimum design of uniform and non-uniform V-shaped arrays is presented for azimuth and elevation angle estimation. The proposed design method finds an optimum angle between the linear sub-arrays of the V-array by using the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) where statistical coupling effect between azimuth and elevation angle estimation is considered. This method can be used to obtain directional and isotropic angle performances for uniform and non-uniform V-arrays. For non-uniform isotropic V-array symmetric and non-symmetric design examples are given. Furthermore the modelling error for the sensor positions is also investigated. The direction of arrival (DOA) performance comparisons of designed V-arrays and uniform circular array (UCA) are also presented and it is shown that the designed arrays have better DOA accuracy.