A new approach for Simultaneous Localization of UAV and RF Sources (SLUS)

In this paper, a new approach for Simultaneous Localization of UAV and RF Sources (SLUS) is proposed. In the UAV-based localization of RF sources, such as a cell phone in a search and rescue mission, the UAV navigation errors are a significant source of localization error. Although the use of GPS can reduce UAV localization error significantly resulting in more accurate RF source localization, however, if the GPS is not available temporarily or permanently, the accuracy of UAV-based localization decreases rapidly. The proposed approach solves these two connected problems, i.e. UAV localization and RF source localization, simultaneously to decrease the error of UAV position estimation and the error of RF sources localization. The prediction of UAV pose is done in parallel to RF source position prediction first. Then the predicted states are augmented and the augmented predicted state information is corrected in SLUS using the range and bearing observations. The simulation results show that this method can reduce RF source´s position estimation error and prevent the divergence of UAV navigation in latitude and longitude channels. In the other words, the RF features available in the environment can be used to improve the UAV navigation.