Multilateration Using A Priori Position Estimates

Existing multilateration algorithms typically do not account for information that is previously known about the target’s position. This paper presents a method of using an a priori estimate of the target’s location and planar approximations of the spheres to determine the target’s position. This algorithm meets or exceeds the performance of traditional multilateration algorithms when the a priori position is accurate enough. It significantly out-performs traditional multilateration in wide-area multilateration scenarios, particularly in the typical case where the reference points are nearly coplanar.