Ant Colony Pheromone Mechanism-Based Passive Localization Using UAV Swarm

The problem of passive localization using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm is studied. For multi-UAV systems with limited communication and observation range, the challenge how to obtain accurate target state consistency estimates through local UAV communication. In this paper, ant colony pheromone mechanism-based method a proposed. Different from traditional distributed fusion algorithms, proposed makes use interactions among individuals process data UAVs, which greatly reduces cost system. First, UAVs that have detected radiation source estimate rough position based on pseudo-linear estimation (PLE). Then, mechanism introduced further improve accuracy. consists two stages: injection transmission. mechanism, each uses maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm current observed bearing information correct initial estimate. weights fuses between transmission mechanism. Numerical results demonstrate accuracy better than algorithms close Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) for small measurement noise.