Cooperative Relative UAV Attitude Estimation Using DoA and RF Polarization
Jon W. Wallace, Attiya Mahmood, Michael A. Jensen, Rashid Mehmood · IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems · 2019
Relative unmanned aerial vehicle attitude is estimated using only on-board radio-frequency signaling. The method uses a direction-of-arrival (DoA) vector estimate to determine two degrees-of-freedom (DoFs), a polarimetric narrowband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel estimate to specify the third DoF to within a 180° ambiguity, and one of the several potential methods for ambiguity resolution. Simulation results demonstrate that the method accurately determines aircraft attitude, with errors proportional to DoA and MIMO channel estimate errors. This approach is useful for cooperative navigation when external navigation aids are not available, such as in GPS-denied environments.