Electro-Optic Based Aided Navigation System for UAVs and Location Error Analysis

Abstract

In this study, virtual global navigation satellite system data is created to be used when global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is jammed. Nowadays, when GNSS signals disappear, the most common method used as aided navigation data is to obtain location information by using inertial measurement units based on MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical) system. However, the position error generated by inertial units increases in proportion to the square of time. In this study, the position information of the UAV is determined by calculating the slant range, elevation and azimuth angles between the electro optic ground station and the UAV. In this structure, 3 different sensors are used. The laser distance meter is used to measure the distance between the ground station and the UAV, the magnetic field meter is used to measure the angle of the azimuth and the accelerometer is used to measure the elevation angle. The sensor data obtained from the STEVAL-STLKT01V1 development board were processed and the effect of the measurement errors on the position error was analyzed. This study provides methods for aided navigation system developers and sheds light on the tradeoffs by giving effect to the position error of sensor measurement errors. It is thought that the study will help to establish an aided navigation system for UAVs that may work in harsh environmental and atmospheric conditions in the future.