Direction-of-Arrival Method Based on Randomize-Then-Optimize Approach

Abstract Sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) has been successfully applied in solving the problem of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. However, SBL needs multiple snapshots to ensure accuracy and costs huge computational workload. To reduce the requirement of snapshot and computational burden, a DOA estimation method based on the randomize-then-optimize (RTO) algorithm is first time introduced. RTO algorithm uses the optimization and Metropolis-Hastings approach to avoid the “learning” process of SBL in updating hyperparameters. And in order to apply RTO algorithm in the circumstance of signal with Laplace prior, a prior transformation technique is first induced. Compared with conventional CS based DOA methods, the proposed method has a better accuracy with single snapshot and shorter processing time. Some simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.