Abstract:

In order to estimate the DOA( Direction Of Arrival) accurately and quickly, a spectrum estimation method based on maximum likelihood algorithm and SQP( Sequence Quadratic Program) was presented. First,the maximum likelihood function for DOA estimation is deduced, and it is used to convert the problem from parameter estimation to a nonlinear function optimization problem. Then, SQP is applied to optimize the process of finding the solutions of the maximum likelihood estimator in order to estimate the DOA. The proposed method reserves the asymptotic unbiased estimation of the maximum likelihood estimator and comparing with the genetic algorithm or particle swarm algorithm, this proposed algorithm has faster speed optimization, and has higher
convergence precision.

Key words: direction of arrival(DOA) estimation, sequence quadratic program(SQP), maximum likelihood estimation, optimization methods