Influence of ESPAR antenna radiation patterns shape on PPCC-based DoA estimation accuracy

In the article, we show the influence of three different electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna radiation patterns on the overall direction of arrival (DoA) estimation accuracy when power-pattern cross-correlation (PPCC) algorithm, relying on received signal strength (RSS) values, is used for the estimation. The ESPAR antenna designs were obtained for three optimization goals, which resulted in different radiation patterns. To check the applicability of every ESPAR antenna to wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, we have verified their achievable DoA estimation accuracy in numerical tests. The results indicate, that it is possible to provide an ESPAR antenna design for WSN applications, which have narrow radiation pattern and also provide acceptable DoA estimation accuracy.