Cooperative Navigation between a Ground Vehicle and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in GNSS-Challenged Environments

This paper considers cooperative navigation between a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in a GNSS-challenged environment with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), and focuses on the design of the optimal motion of the UGV to best assist the UAV’s navigation solution. Our approach reduces the uncertainty of a UAV’s navigation solution through the use of radio ranging updates from a cooperative UGV. In this study, we develop and compare two novel methods for designing a UGV’s trajectory such that the UAV’s dilution of precision is reduced. To conduct this study, a simulation environment is used to characterize the performance of the cooperative navigation between a UAV and a UGV. The study is conducted to evaluate the positioning accuracy during common GNSS-challenged scenarios such as: a vehicle in an urban environment and flying against a building. Using an Ultra Wideband (UWB) radio, the UAV in a GNSS-challenged environment, an urban canyon, is able to determine it’s position with the support of a UGV. The use of a UGV and moving it based on the reduction of dilution of precision, has shown to decrease the position error of the UAV.