Single UAV-Based Wave Source Localization in NLOS Environments

Abstract

To localize an unknown wave source in non-line-of-sight environments, a wave source localization scheme using multiple unmanned-aerial-vehicles (UAVs) is proposed. In this scheme, each UAV estimates the direction-of-arrivals (DoAs) of received signals and the wave source is localized from the estimated DoAs by means of maximum likelihood estimation. In this study, by extending the concept of this scheme, we propose a novel wave source localization scheme using a single UAV. In the proposed scheme, the UAV moves on the path comprising multiple measurement points and the wave source is sequentially localized from DoA distributions estimated at these measurement points. At each measurement point, with a moving path planning algorithm, the UAV determines the next measurement point from the estimated DoA distributions and measurement points that the UAV has already visited. We consider two moving path planning algorithms, and validate the proposed scheme through simulation experiments.