A pseudo-noise resampling approach to direction of arrival estimation using estimator banks

The problem of the design of eigenstructure estimator banks using a new pseudo-noise approach is addressed. We propose to obtain the underlying estimators for the estimator bank using a new type of resampling of some chosen DOA estimator via pseudo-randomly generated noise. Censored selection of the results of pseudo-randomly resampled estimators is then exploited based on an appropriate local performance test. To illustrate the universality of our pseudo-noise approach and its applicability to the direction finding problem, we formulate a novel pseudo-noise-based estimator bank technique with particular application to the MUSIC estimator, though our concept can be applied in the same way to any other direction finding algorithm as well. The technique presented is shown to have a drastic improvement in the threshold performance relative to conventional MUSIC. The strength of the pseudo-noise approach is demonstrated on simulations and real ultrasonic array data.