Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dickerson, Cole, Masrur, Saad, Dickerson, Jonah, Özdemir, Özgür, Güvenç, Ismail
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01771
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909965546946560
author Dickerson, Cole
Masrur, Saad
Dickerson, Jonah
Özdemir, Özgür
Güvenç, Ismail
author_facet Dickerson, Cole
Masrur, Saad
Dickerson, Jonah
Özdemir, Özgür
Güvenç, Ismail
contents This paper investigates unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) localization using time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements under mixed line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions. A 3D TDOA Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) model is developed accounting for varying altitudes and signal bandwidths. The model is compared to five real-world UAV flight experiments conducted at different altitudes (40 m, 70 m, 100 m) and bandwidths (1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz) using Keysight N6841A radio frequency (RF) sensors of the NSF AERPAW platform. Results show that altitude, bandwidth, and NLOS obstructions significantly impact localization accuracy. Higher bandwidths enhance signal time resolution, while increased altitudes mitigate multipath and NLOS biases, both contributing to improved performance. However, hovering close to RF sensors degrades accuracy due to antenna pattern misalignment and geometric dilution of precision. These findings emphasize the inadequacy of traditional LOS-based models in NLOS environments and highlight the importance of adaptive approaches for accurate localization in challenging scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_01771
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of Altitude, Bandwidth, and NLOS Bias on TDOA-Based 3D UAV Localization: Experimental Results and CRLB Analysis
Dickerson, Cole
Masrur, Saad
Dickerson, Jonah
Özdemir, Özgür
Güvenç, Ismail
Signal Processing
This paper investigates unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) localization using time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements under mixed line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions. A 3D TDOA Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) model is developed accounting for varying altitudes and signal bandwidths. The model is compared to five real-world UAV flight experiments conducted at different altitudes (40 m, 70 m, 100 m) and bandwidths (1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz) using Keysight N6841A radio frequency (RF) sensors of the NSF AERPAW platform. Results show that altitude, bandwidth, and NLOS obstructions significantly impact localization accuracy. Higher bandwidths enhance signal time resolution, while increased altitudes mitigate multipath and NLOS biases, both contributing to improved performance. However, hovering close to RF sensors degrades accuracy due to antenna pattern misalignment and geometric dilution of precision. These findings emphasize the inadequacy of traditional LOS-based models in NLOS environments and highlight the importance of adaptive approaches for accurate localization in challenging scenarios.
title Impact of Altitude, Bandwidth, and NLOS Bias on TDOA-Based 3D UAV Localization: Experimental Results and CRLB Analysis
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.01771