A novel and practical combined weighted (COM-W) method for target localization based on time difference of arrival (TDOA) is proposed in this paper. For 2-D situations with more than three nodes, the main idea of the proposed method is to obtain multiple preliminary localization results corresponding to the different three-node combinations first, and then use the weighted averaging technique based on the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB) to obtain the final estimation. Considering target localization with a set of fixed-positioning nodes employing TDOA measurements as an example, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated by both simulations and acoustic indoor positioning experiments. The experimental results show that the COM-W method is a closed-form and computationally efficient method. It has an excellent positioning performance under both narrow and square geometric arrangements, specifically in the central cross-shaped area and in the vicinity of the nodes. Compared to the three classic weighted linear least squares (WLS)-based positioning methods, the proposed COM-W method is less sensitive to the measurement noise and the NLOS environment. The proposed method has an important application value for the realization of a TDOA-based indoor target positioning system.

中文翻译：

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基于TDOA的定位组合加权方法

本文提出了一种新颖实用的基于到达时间差(TDOA)的目标定位组合加权(COM-W)方法。对于具有三个以上节点的二维情况，该方法的主要思想是首先获得对应于不同三节点组合的多个初步定位结果，然后使用基于Cramér-Rao下界的加权平均技术(CRLB) 以获得最终估计。以采用TDOA测量的一组固定定位节点的目标定位为例，通过仿真和室内声学定位实验来评估所提出方法的性能。实验结果表明，COM-W 方法是一种封闭形式且计算效率高的方法。它在狭窄和方形几何排列下都具有出色的定位性能，特别是在中心十字形区域和节点附近。与三种经典的基于加权线性最小二乘法 (WLS) 的定位方法相比，所提出的 COM-W 方法对测量噪声和 NLOS 环境不太敏感。该方法对于实现基于TDOA的室内目标定位系统具有重要的应用价值。