Equivalent Spatial Plane-Based Relative Pose Estimation of UAVs

The accuracy of relative pose estimation is an important foundation for ensuring the safety and stability of autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and in response to this problem, a relative pose estimation method of UAVs based on the spatial equivalent plane is proposed in this paper. The UAV is equivalent to a spatial polygonal plane, and according to the measurement information of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, the equivalent polygonal plane equation is solved through the three-point normal vector and the minimum sum of squares of the distance from the four points to the plane. The equations of the distance between the geometric centers of the two polygonal planes, the angle between planes, and the angle between lines are used to calculate the relative pose information of the UAVs. Finally, the simulation environment and initial parameters are utilized for numerical simulation and results analysis. The simulation results show that without considering the motion model of the UAV, the proposed method can accurately estimate the relative pose information of the UAVs. In addition, in the presence of measurement errors, the relative pose estimation method based on the equivalent triangle plane can identify the position of the measurement point with the error, and the relative pose estimation method based on the equivalent quadrilateral plane has good robustness. The simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.