Localization Strategy for Suspended Tethered-Drone

The emergence of tethered- drones has introduced a paradigm shift in infrastructure assessments. Providing a dynamic solution for the limited flight time and communication reliability of using a drone alone, incorporating a tether into the system yielded additional benefits for the visual assist in inspections. Furthermore, the use of a tether provides precise localization for the unmanned aerial vehicle in GPS-denied environments where vision-based exteroception is not available. In this study, a new localization strategy for a suspended tethered - drone was introduced. The approach leveraged three known parameters, the tether wire length, component of tension, and azimuth angle, to determine the 3D position of the tethered-drone. A hybrid set-up was used for a more accurate wire length measurement. Moreover, using a neural network, the trained data sets garnered 0.9936, 0.9920, and 0.9934 for training, validation, and overall regression scores, respectively.