FDA-MIMO radar for 3D localization: Virtual coprime planar array with unfolded coprime frequency offset framework and TRD-MUSIC algorithm

Abstract The frequency diverse array multiple-input multiple-output (FDA-MIMO) radar can detect target range by exploiting a small frequency offset across the transmit sensors, which can be utilized to jointly estimate angle and range. Nevertheless, the detection performance is basically restricted by the array aperture and signal bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a joint optimization design scheme for FDA-MIMO radar, i.e., the virtual coprime planar array with ‘unfolded’ coprime frequency offsets (VCPA-UCFO) framework, for 3D localization without ambiguity. The VCPA-UCFO framework can significantly save sensors and physical space while remarkably extend array aperture and signal bandwidth, which brings about remarkably enhanced economic benefits and estimation performance. Additionally, we construct the 3D localization problem as 3D-MUSIC spatial spectrum function and transform the 3D total spectrum search of the conventional 3D-MUSIC algorithm into 1D local spectrum search by cooperating ESPRIT algorithm and twice reduce dimension MUSIC (TRD-MUSIC) algorithm. The TRD-MUSIC algorithm can significantly relieve computational burden but with no performance degradation. The CRBs are given as performance benchmark. The analysis and simulations have verified the effectiveness and advantages of VCPA-UCFO framework and TRD-MUSIC algorithm in system cost, localization accuracy, resolution and computational complexity.