Accuracy comparison of time difference of arrival based source localization methods

The position of an electromagnetic, acoustic or seismic source can be obtained by spatially separated synchronize receivers. Using the time differences between the receivers, hyperbolic lines of position is defined and the target can be localized at the intersect point of them. Different algorithms based on time difference of arrival nonlinear and linear algorithms can be found in literature. In this study, nonlinear least square, maximum likelihood, linear least square and weighted linear least square methods are compared each other´s. Additionally, the mean square errors are compared with the Cramer-Rao lower bound for different receiver geometries and noise levels.