# 3D angle-of-arrival positioning using von Mises-Fisher distribution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.02437 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.02437/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Sep 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Beyond Point Estimates: Likelihood-Based Full-Posterior Wireless Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25719/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose modeling an angle-of-arrival (AOA) positioning measurement as a von Mises-Fisher (VMF) distributed unit vector instead of the conventional normally distributed azimuth and elevation measurements. Describing the 2-dimensional AOA measurement with three numbers removes discontinuities and reduces nonlinearity at the poles of the azimuth-elevation coordinate system. Our computer simulations show that the proposed VMF measurement noise model based filters outperform the normal distribution based algorithms in accuracy in a scenario where close-to-pole measurements occur frequently.