E2E5: TDOA-Based UAV Localization

1) Keysight N6841A TDOA Localization of AERPAW UAV Scenario

• Experiment site: AERPAW's Lake Wheeler Road Field Labs

• Transmitter: AERPAW UAV with programmable SDR

• Receivers: Keysight N6841A RF Sensors

• Description

We log in remotely to open the N6841A Keysight Sensor Management Tool (SMT) and localize an AERPAW UAV over a user-defined trajectory using a Time-Difference of Arrival (TDOA) algorithm. The Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) on the AERPAW UAVs can be programmed to transmit a variety of signals for localization. In this scenario, we modify the  GE2 Channel Sounder Experiment. The MATLAB code attached for localization analysis creates a 3D plot of the UAV's trajectory, plots the estimated v. ground truth coordinates for the UAV in 2D, plots localization error v. altitude, plots localization error v. time, plots altitude v. time, plots the UAV's trajectory in 3D with color-coded coordinates based on error thresholding, and plots the color-coded ground truth coordinates based on error thresholding.

2) Post-processing Code for Keysight N6841A TDOA Localization of AERPAW UAV Sample Dataset

• Localization Results Data for 5 flights at varying altitudes and bandwidths: [download]

• Post-processing code link: [download]

• Description

Run MATLAB 'KeysightRTDOALocalizationforFlights.m' file with a proper file directory setup. The post-processing output provides the figures listed above by using MATLAB Mapping Toolbox.

3) Representative Plots from Keysight N6841A TDOA Localization of AERPAW UAV Sample Dataset

• AERPAW UAV flight at 100 meter altitude transmitting GE2 Channel Sounding Waveform at 5 MHz