Abstract
Precise localization is one of the key requirements in the deployment of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for any application including precision mapping, surveillance, assisted navigation, search and rescue. The need for precise positioning is even more relevant with the increasing automation in UAVs and growing interest in commercial UAV applications such as transport and delivery. In the near future, the airspace is expected to be occupied with a large number of unmanned as well as manned aircraft, a majority of which are expected to be operating autonomously. This paper develops a new cooperative localization prototype that utilizes information sharing among UAVs and static anchor nodes for precise positioning of the UAVs. The UAVs are retrofitted with low-cost sensors including a camera, GPS receiver, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) radio and low-cost inertial sensors. The performance of the low-cost prototype is evaluated in real-world conditions in partially and obscured GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) environments. The performance is analyzed for both centralized and distributed cooperative network designs. It is demonstrated that the developed system is capable of achieving navigation grade (2–4 m) accuracy in partially GNSS denied environments, provided a consistent communication in the cooperative network is available. Furthermore, this paper provides experimental validation that information sharing is beneficial to improve positioning performance even in ideal GNSS environments. The experiments demonstrate that the major challenges for low-cost cooperative networks are consistent connectivity among UAV platforms and sensor synchronization.
Highlights
Location awareness is one of the most important requirements in applications such as mapping [1], precision agriculture [2], search and rescue [3], assisted navigation [4], and driverless cars [5]
The GSA has further forecasted that the demand for positioning requirements for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is expected to grow by about five times from the year 2018 to 2025 with a significant increase in the applications that rely on the use of low-cost UAVs [6]
It is assumed that UAV 103 cannot receive GNSS observations
Summary
Location awareness is one of the most important requirements in applications such as mapping [1], precision agriculture [2], search and rescue [3], assisted navigation [4], and driverless cars [5]. The European GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) Agency (GSA) has forecasted that the combined revenue from GNSS devices and augmentation services is expected to grow to about 300 billion Euro by the year 2025, which is about three times the revenue in the year 2017 [6]. This significant growth demonstrates the increasing demand for location awareness in various applications.
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