DOA error estimation in 3D cylindrical dipole array geometries including the mutual coupling effect

The direction of arrival (DOA) error in dipole 3D arrays is estimated through Monte-Carlo simulations using the standard MUSIC algorithm. Novel 3D geometries are implemented which demonstrate better precision given the same lateral area. The mutual coupling effect is included by changing the search vector in the MUSIC DOA algorithm for the novel 3D geometries. A simple straight forward method is used which does not need complex electromagnetic computations. Simulations show that the proposed method can successfully account for the mutual coupling effects in two dimensional direction finding (both azimuth and elevation angle) with novel 3D array geometries. Reduced DOA estimation error is observed in the novel geometries which can be used as a method of mitigation for the mutual coupling effect.