Suboptimal Low Complexity Joint Multi-Target Detection and Localization for Non-Coherent MIMO Radar With Widely Separated Antennas

In this article, the problem of simultaneously detecting and localizing multiple targets in homogeneous noise environment is considered for non-coherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with widely separated antennas. By assuming that the a prior knowledge of target number is available, an optimal solution to this problem is presented first. It is essentially a maximum-likelihood (ML) estimator searching the parameters of interest in a high-dimensional state space. However, the complexity of this solution increases exponentially with the number $G$ of targets. Besides, if the number of targets is unknown, a multi-hypothesis testing strategy to verify all the possible hypotheses on target number is required, which further complicates this method. In order to devise computationally feasible methods for practical applications, we split the high-dimensional maximization into $G$ disjoint sub-optimization problems by sequentially detecting targets and then clearing their interference for the subsequent detection of remaining targets. In this way, we further propose two fast and robust suboptimal solutions which allow to trade performance for a much lower implementation complexity. In addition, the multi-hypothesis testing is no longer required when target number is unknown. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can correctly detect and accurately localize multiple targets even when targets lie in the same range bins. Experimental data recorded by three small radars are also provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms.