Self UAV Localization Using Multiple Base Stations Based on TDoA Measurements

Localization of GPS-less UAV is fundamental for path planning and navigation. In this letter, a TDoA-based approach for self-localizing UAV is proposed. The approach utilizes multiple Base Stations (BSs) to obtain TDoA measurements without requiring exact UAV-BS synchronization. A reformulation of the measurements which relates the new transformed measurements to UAV’s initial position is derived. A least squares (LS) approach is proposed to solve the nonlinear equations. Sufficient condition of convexity of the LS cost function has been proved mathematically and verified experimentally. Also, a condition on step-size is derived to assure the convergence of the algorithm. This leads to efficient solutions for minimization. Results show that the proposed method has outstanding performance, especially, when compared to RSS-based UAV localization method.