Method for position estimation via combinatorial choice of antenna elements

A method comprising:

• at each node in a set of nodes:
• receiving a signal, transmitted from a target device, at a set of antenna elements of the node;
• calculating a set of time-of-arrival estimates of the signal received at the set of antenna elements;
• generating a message, in a set of messages indicating time-of-arrival estimates of the signal received at nodes in the set of nodes, comprising the set of time-of-arrival estimates;
• and
• transmitting the message to a remote computer system;
• and
• at the remote computer system:
• accessing the set of messages from the set of nodes;
• defining a set of combinations of antenna elements, each combination of antenna elements including an antenna element of each node in the set of nodes;
• for each combination of antenna elements in the set of combinations of antenna elements:
• accessing a group of time-of-arrival estimates of the signal and corresponding to antenna elements in the combination of antenna elements;
• and
• calculating a candidate position, in a set of candidate positions in a reference coordinate system, occupied by the target device based on the group of time-of-arrival estimates;
• isolating a subset of candidate positions, in the set of candidate positions, falling within a convex hull bounded by positions, in the reference coordinate system, occupied by nodes in the set of nodes;
• and
• calculating an estimated position, in the reference coordinate system, occupied by the target device based on a centroid of candidate positions in the subset of candidate positions.

A method comprising:

• for each node in a set of nodes, accessing a set of time-of-arrival estimates of a signal transmitted from a target device and received at the node, each time-of-arrival estimate, in the set of time-of-arrival estimates, corresponding to an antenna element in a set of antenna elements of the node;
• defining a set of combinations of antenna elements, each combination of antenna elements including an antenna element of each node in the set of nodes;
• for each combination of antenna elements in the set of combinations of antenna elements:
• accessing a group of time-of-arrival estimates of the signal and corresponding to antenna elements in the combination of antenna elements;
• and
• calculating a candidate position, in a set of candidate positions in a reference coordinate system, occupied by the target device based on the group of time-of-arrival estimates;
• grouping candidate positions, in the set of candidate positions, into a set of candidate groups based on proximity of candidate positions in the set of candidate positions;
• for each position group in the set of position groups, calculating a quantity of candidate positions in the position group;
• selecting a target position group, in the set of position groups, characterized by a greatest quantity of candidate positions among the set of position groups;
• and
• calculating an estimated position, in the reference coordinate system, occupied by the target device based on a centroid of candidate positions in the target position group.