Local positioning system for autonomous vertical take-off and landing using ultra-wide band measurement ranging system

Abstract

An autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) must be supported with an accurate positioning system, especially for autonomous take-off, landing, and other tasks in small area. This paper presents a novel method of small local outdoor positioning system for localizing the area of dropping and landing of autonomous VTOL by utilizing the low-cost precision ultra-wide band (UWB) ranging system. We compared symmetrical single sided-two way ranging (SSS-TWR), symmetrical double sided-two way ranging (SDS-TWR), and asymmetrical double sided-two way ranging (ADS-TWR) methods to get precision ranging measurement on UWB radio module. ADS-TWR was superior to others by resulting in minimum distance error. The ADS-TWR average error was 1.38 % (35.88 cm), SDS-TWR average error was 1.83 % (47.58 cm), and SSS-TWR average error was 2.73 % (70.98 cm). Furthermore, the trilateration method was utilized to obtain the local position of the autonomous VTOL. The trilateration method successfully implemented autonomous VTOL quadcopter positioning in a small local outdoor area (20 m x 30 m). Autonomous VTOL has been able to drop seven payloads in seven areas (2 m x 2 m) and landed in the home position (3 m x 3 m) successfully.