Incorporating Array Nonidealities Into Adaptive Capon Beamformer for Source Tracking

An adaptive algorithm for azimuth-angle estimation of moving sources in the presence of array nonidealities is proposed. The method, termed unitary element-space Capon (UES-Capon) beamformer, is robust in the face of small number of snapshots and fully takes into account effects such as mutual coupling, mounting platform reflections, and sensor's misplacement errors. Unlike most of the robust beamformers available in the literature, the proposed method is based on QR-decomposition and real-valued polynomial root tracking. Furthermore, it is applicable to sensor arrays of arbitrary configuration. Numerical results using a real-world antenna array are included, illustrating the excellent performance of the proposed method, both in terms of SINR and fast adaptivity to moving sources.