Accurate time delay estimation based passive localization

A conventional approach for source localization is to utilize time delay measurements of the emitted signal received at an array of sensors. The time delay information is then employed to construct a set of hyperbolic equations from which the target position can be determined. In this paper, we utilize semidefinite programming (SDP) technique to derive a passive source localization algorithm which can integrate the available a priori knowledge such as admissible target range and other cues. It is shown that the SDP method is superior to the well-known two-step weighted least squares method at lower signal-to-noise ratio conditions.