The Bearing-Only Target localization via the Single UAV: Asymptotically Unbiased Closed-Form Solution and Path Planning

The target localization based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is becoming more and more popular due to its flexible mobility. In this paper, the bearing-only localization with respect to the single UAV in the three-dimensional (3D) scenario is studied by the angle of arrival (AOA). In the current researches, the bias of the closed-form solution caused by the coefficient errors of the pseudo-linear equations constructed by the AOA is not effectively eliminated. In order to reduce the bias, an asymptotically unbiased localization algorithm is proposed, which eliminates the bias by constructing the constrained weighted least-squares. Since the term that causes the bias is constrained to a constant, which no longer affects the closed-form solution of the pseudo-linear equations, the closed-form solution is unbiased. After that, the position errors of the UAV are considered in path planning, which improves localization accuracy by taking account of both AOA errors and position errors of the UAV rather than just AOA errors.