Closed-form least-squares source location estimation from range-difference measurements

Abstract

Three noniterative techniques are presented for localizing a single source given a set of noisy range-difference measurements. The localization formulas are derived from linear least-squares "equation error" minimization, and in one case the maximum likelihood bearing estimate is approached. Geometric interpretations of the equation error norms minimized by the three methods are given, and the statistical performances of the three methods are compared via computer simulation.