4-DOF Magnetic Field Based Localization...

This paper presents a magnetic field based 4-degrees of freedom (DOF) localization approach for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The sensor system is comprised of two elements, a 3-axis magnetic field source attached to the mobile object, i.e. on the UAV, and a 3-axis magnetic field sensor being on a fixed position, e.g. ground. The transmitters are driven by signals in the low radio frequency (RF) range which ensures robustness against reflections and absorbing objects, making it ideally suitable for indoor usage. Additionally, its accuracy increases with decreasing distance between transmitter and receiver. Our system is thus complementary to vision based systems which experience difficulties when navigating close to ground level. This is mainly caused by their focal length and the loss of features. The proposed concept is validated in simulation and additionally with a rapid-prototyping-based experimental setup.