Outlier Rejection Approach for Direction of Arrival Estimation in Low SNR Conditions

This paper deals with the problem of Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation through a Non-Uniform Linear Array (NULA) in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. By exploiting the spatial diversity offered by the different subarrays of a given NULA configuration, we propose a simple strategy that aims at identifying and discarding DoA estimates that are recognized to be outliers caused by the generally high level of the employed array beampattern sidelobes. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is shown on both simulated and experimental data for a drone surveillance application in the Wi-Fi band.