Abstract: For the issue of aperture and array elements losses in near-field source localization when having a limited number of sensors, a covariance matrix reconstruction method is proposed based on the symmetric minimum redundant array which allows the element spacing not to be limited to the quarter wavelength. A fourth-order cumulant matrix is constructed which is related only to the azimuth to estimate the azimuth angles of sources by the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm. Then the ranges of sources can be estimated by searching the spectral peak according to the estimated angles. The algorithm extends the aperture of the array and enhances the degree of freedom. Simulation results show that the algorithm can estimate a  much larger number of sources and has a better estimated performance and spatial resolution. Besides, the algorithm only requires one-dimensional search, which avoids two-dimensional parameter matching.

Key words: array signal processing, near-field source localization, minimum redundant symmetric array, high-order cumulation