Robust DOA Estimation Using Modified VSSLMS for UAV-Assisted Disaster Management Applications
Received: 29 June 2025 | Revised: 13 July 2025 | Accepted: 16 July 2025 | Online: 9 October 2025
Corresponding author: Veerendra Dakulagi
Abstract
Accurate and timely Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation is essential in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-assisted disaster management scenarios, where rapid localization of signal sources supports critical response operations. This paper proposes a robust and computationally efficient DOA estimation method based on a modified Variable Step-Size Least Mean Squares (VSSLMS) algorithm enhanced with a normalized sigmoid function for adaptive step-size control. The proposed algorithm dynamically adjusts the learning rate in response to the signal environment, improving convergence speed, tracking performance, and noise resilience in non-stationary conditions. Unlike traditional subspace-based methods, this approach eliminates the need for covariance matrix estimation and eigen-decomposition, significantly reducing computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the algorithm's superior performance in low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) environments and with limited snapshots, making it well-suited for real-time implementation on resource-constrained UAV platforms in emergency response missions.
Keywords:
Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), disaster management, adaptive signal processing, emergency response systemsDownloads
References
M. Alagirisamy, V. Dakulagi, S. K. Selvaperumal, N. Ramasendran, and N. T. Zaman, "Enhanced Capon-MUSIC Integration for improved DOA Estimation with Coprime Arrays in Disaster Management," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 20653–20659, Apr. 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.9261
C. Yu, Y. Li, L. Li, Z. Huang, Q. Wu, and R. de Lamare, "Dual Lawson Norm-Based Robust DOA Estimation for RIS-Aided Wireless Communication Systems," IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 582–592, Feb. 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAES.2024.3446752
T. Grebner, R. Riekenbrauck, and C. Waldschmidt, "Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Processing in the Field of Autonomous Driving," IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems, vol. 2, pp. 47–66, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TRS.2023.3347734
L. Zheng, T. Hu, and J. Zhu, "Underwater Sonar Target Detection Based on Improved ScEMA-YOLOv8," IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 21, 2024, Art. no. 1503505. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2024.3397848
R. Schmidt, "Multiple emitter location and signal parameter estimation," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 276–280, Mar. 1986. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.1986.1143830
J. Capon, "High-resolution frequency-wavenumber spectrum analysis," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 1408–1418, Aug. 1969. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/PROC.1969.7278
B. D. Rao and K. V. S. Hari, "Performance analysis of Root-Music," IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 1939–1949, Dec. 1989. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/29.45540
R. Roy and T. Kailath, "ESPRIT-estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques," IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 984–995, Jul. 1989. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/29.32276
G. Liu, H. Chen, X. Sun, and R. C. Qiu, "Modified MUSIC Algorithm for DOA Estimation With Nyström Approximation," IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 16, no. 12, pp. 4673–4674, Jun. 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2016.2557488
V. Dakulagi, "A New Approach to Achieve a Trade-Off Between Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Performance and Computational Complexity," IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 1183–1186, Apr. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2020.3048023
Y. Guo, W. Li, J. Shen, X. Xu, J. Zhang, and Y. Zuo, "A low complexity algorithm for DOA estimation based on reduced-rank covariance matrix," in 2014 IEEE International Conference on Signal Processing, Communications and Computing, Guilin, China, 2014, pp. 61–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSPCC.2014.6986152
Y. Zhang and B. P. Ng, "MUSIC-Like DOA Estimation Without Estimating the Number of Sources," IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 1668–1676, Mar. 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2009.2037074
H. Zeng, Z. Ahmad, J. Zhou, Q. Wang, and Y. Wang, "DOA estimation algorithm based on adaptive filtering in spatial domain," China Communications, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 49–58, Dec. 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/CC.2016.7897554
F.-M. Han and X.-D. Zhang, "An ESPRIT-like algorithm for coherent DOA estimation," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 4, pp. 443–446, 2005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LAWP.2005.860194
W. Zhang, Y. Han, M. Jin, and X.-S. Li, "An Improved ESPRIT-Like Algorithm for Coherent Signals DOA Estimation," IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 339–343, Feb. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2019.2953851
M. V. Galindo et al., "Advanced Direction-of-Arrival Estimation in Coprime Arrays via Adaptive Nyström Spectral Analysis," IEEE Sensors Letters, vol. 8, no. 2, Feb. 2024, Art. no. 7001204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LSENS.2024.3349651
V. D et al., "Unitary Root-MUSIC Method With Nystrom Approximation for 3-D Sparse Array DOA Estimation in Sensor Networks," IEEE Sensors Letters, vol. 8, no. 10, Oct. 2024, Art. no. 5504004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LSENS.2024.3451723
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Mukil Alagirisamy, Veerendra Dakulagi, Sathish Kumar Selvaperumal, Narendran Ramasendran, Chennupati Sai Dheeraj, Mehman Hasanov, Mohd Nazish Khan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
