Dynamic Artificial Neural Network-Assisted GPS-Less Navigation for IoT-Enabled Drones

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have enabled key duties in emergency preparedness, traffic monitoring, environmental monitoring, and public safety. Since the presence of GPS-enabled contexts is not always guaranteed, a grand challenge with the UAVs is the lack of accomplishing their tasks without the presence of GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude, and altitude). Hence, the performance of UAVs in GPS-denied environments is expected to degrade dramatically when compared to the UAVs employed in GPS-enabled environments. In this article, an alternative approach to the state-of-the-art, Dynamic Artificial Neural Network (D-ANN)-based solution is proposed to assist UAV navigation without GPS positions during a mission. Besides accelerometer and gyroscope data, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals, which have been traditionally used in the design of UAV flight controllers, are proposed to be a part of the input for D-ANN-assisted UAV navigation without GPS data. Since the latitude, longitude, and altitude values of the UAV are not correlated, each position is obtained through a separate D-ANN system. The proposed D-ANN location of a quadrotor UAV assisted by D-ANN has less than 3m average destination error at the end of the testing trajectory and also less than 0.12 average normalized mean square error during the testing trajectory in terms of the 3D GPS coordinates.

Introduction

Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled drones are used in various services, such as last-mile delivery, where the IoT front-end can provide inputs regarding external conditions so as to support real-time decisions during the flight [1]. Indeed, use cases for IoT-enabled drones are not limited to delivery services since the advances in uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) have paved the way for a broad range of societal impacts through applications in various areas [2]. A UAV can be considered an aircraft that is not operated by a human throughout the entire flight. IoT-enabled UAVs consist of required flight equipment and sensor payloads that can communicate with an IoT platform for data-driven decisions, which can also be a part of a ground control station [3]. The enablers for autonomous flights by UAVs are pre-programmed flight plans or controllable dynamic automation systems that rely on on-board control or remote control equipment at a ground station.