This paper presents a new simple and accurate frequency estimator of a sinusoidal signal based on the signal autocorrelation function (ACF). Such an estimator was termed as the reformed covariance for half-length autocorrelation (RC-HLA). The designed estimator was compared with frequency estimators well-known from the literature, such as the modified covariance for half-length autocorrelation (MC-HLA), reformed Pisarenko harmonic decomposition for half-length autocorrelation(RPHD-HLA), modified Pisarenko harmonic decomposition for half-length autocorrelation (MPHD-HLA), zero-crossing (ZC), and iterative interpolated DFT (IpDFT-IR) estimators. We determined the samples of the ACF of a sinusoidal signal disturbed by Gaussian noise (simulations studies) and the samples of the ACF of a sinusoidal voltage(experimental studies), calculated estimators based on the obtained samples, and computed the mean squared error(MSE) to compare the estimators. The errorswere juxtaposed with the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB). The research results have shown that the proposed estimator is one of the most accurate, especially for SNR > 25 dB. Then the RC-HLA estimator errors are comparable to the MPHD-HLA estimator errors. However, the biggest advantage of the developed estimator is the ability to quickly and accurately determine the frequency based on samples collected from no more than five signal periods. In this case, the RC-HLA estimator is the most accurate of the estimators tested.

In this paper, two new sinusoidal signal frequency estimators calculated on the basis of four equally spaced signal samples are presented. These estimators are called four-point estimators. Simulation and experimental research consisting in signal frequency estimation using the invented estimators have been carried out. Simulation has also been performed for frequency tracking. The simulation research was carried out applying the MathCAD computer program that determined samples of a sinusoidal signal disturbed by Gaussian noise. In the experimental research, sinusoidal signal samples were obtained by means of a National Instruments PCI-6024E data acquisition card and an Agilent 33220A function generator. On the basis of the collected samples, the values of four-point estimators invented by the authors and, for comparison, the values of three- and four-point estimators proposed by Vizireanu were determined. Next, estimation errors of the signal frequency were determined. It has been shown that the invented estimators can estimate a signal frequency with greater accuracy.