UAV Navigation using Signals of Opportunity in Urban Environments: A Review

Abstract Novel Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) systems are currently developed targeting the Required Total System Performance (RTSP) levels. Within RTSP, it is essential to meet the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) in all flight phases, especially considering the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) evolutions in the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) context. However, in dense urban environments characterized by tall buildings and complex structural variations, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is prone to data degradations or complete loss of signal due to multipath effects, interference or antenna obscuration. Furthermore, there is always a risk of jamming and spoofing of GNSS signals, with low cost civilian GNSS receivers being more vulnerable to a spoof attack. Therefore, a number of Signals of Opportunity (SoOP) techniques are explored to improve the RNP when Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are employed in urban canyons. Electromagnetic signals found in urban environment including analogue/ digital radio, analogue/digital television, Wi-Fi, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based signals are considered to model the system performance parameters. Implementation methods for using Signals of Opportunity such as Angle of Arrival (AOA), Time of Arrival (TOA), Received Signal Strength (RSS) and Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) are modeled and compared. Integration of SoOP techniques in novel low-cost Navigation and Guidance Systems (NGS) is also investigated. As SoOP were not initially designed for navigation purposes, no single source of SoOP for navigation can work in all environments and hence a SoOP source has to be selected based on specific requirements in the considered urban environment. Constraints of power and weight on the UAV besides hardware and software costs are also factors that are considered when selecting appropriate SoOP signal sources. Hence, there is a clear opportunity to provide considerable savings in both infrastructure as well as energy costs and thus providing a low-cost and low-volume integrated NGS for trusted aerial autonomous operations.

[1]  Roberto Sabatini,et al.  Avionics-Based GNSS Integrity Augmentation for Unmanned Aerial Systems Sense-and-Avoid , 2014 .

[2]  Jian Song.  Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) , 2010 .

[3]  Xianbin Wang,et al.  A New Position Location System Using DTV Transmitter Identification Watermark Signals , 2006, EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process..

[4]  Domenico G. Porcino,et al.  Performance of a OTDOA-IPDL positioning receiver for 3GPP-FDD mode , 2001 .

[5]  K.J.R. Liu,et al.  Signal processing techniques in network-aided positioning: a survey of state-of-the-art positioning designs , 2005, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

[6]  Roberto Sabatini,et al.  GNSS avionics-based Integrity augmentation for RPAS detect-and-avoid applications , 2014 .

[7]  Roberto Sabatini,et al.  A new avionics-based GNSS integrity augmentation system , 2013 .

[8]  Gordon L. Stüber,et al.  Subscriber location in CDMA cellular networks , 1998 .

[9]  Reece A. Clothier,et al.  An innovative navigation and guidance system for small unmanned aircraft using low-cost sensors , 2015 .

[10]  Oscar Mayora-Ibarra,et al.  Tuning to your position: FM radio based indoor localization with spontaneous recalibration , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom).

[11]  Matthew Rabinowitz,et al.  A new positioning system using television synchronization signals , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting.

[12]  B. R. Badrinath,et al.  Ad hoc positioning system (APS) using AOA , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[13]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  RPAS navigation and guidance systems based on GNSS and other low-cost sensors , 2014 .

[14]  Rong Peng,et al.  Angle of Arrival Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2006, 2006 3rd Annual IEEE Communications Society on Sensor and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks.

[15]  Kenneth A. Fisher,et al.  The Navigation Potential of Signals of Opportunity-Based Time Difference of Arrival Measurements , 2005 .

[16]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  Maneuver-based autonomous navigation of a small fixed-wing UAV , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[17]  Muhammed Salamah,et al.  General approach to simple algorithms for 2-D positioning techniques in cellular networks , 2008, Comput. Commun..

[18]  Shih-Hau Fang,et al.  Is FM a RF-Based Positioning Solution in a Metropolitan-Scale Environment? A Probabilistic Approach With Radio Measurements Analysis , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting.

[19]  H. Howard Fan,et al.  Asynchronous differential TDOA for non-GPS navigation using signals of opportunity , 2008, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.

[20]  Richard K. Martin,et al.  Bandwidth Efficient Cooperative TDOA Computation for Multicarrier Signals of Opportunity , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.

[21]  T.D. Hall.  Radiolocation using AM broadcast signals: The role of signal propagation irregularities , 2004, PLANS 2004. Position Location and Navigation Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37556).

[22]  Roberto Sabatini,et al.  A New Avionics-Based GNSS Integrity Augmentation System: Part 2 – Integrity Flags , 2013, Journal of Navigation.

[23]  Wilfred E. Noel.  Signals of Opportunity Navigation Using Wi-Fi Signals , 2012 .

[24]  A. Dempster,et al.  System-Level Considerations for Signal-of-Opportunity Positioning , 2010 .

[25]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  A Novel 3D Multilateration Sensor Using Distributed Ultrasonic Beacons for Indoor Navigation , 2016, Sensors.