Positioning of the radio source based on time difference of arrival method using unmanned aerial vehicles

In this paper, we estimate the accuracy of the fixed and moving radio source based on Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in three-dimensional space. We estimate the coordinates of an unknown radio source using the nonlinear technique. Nonlinear Least Squares is the nonlinear technique that has been used to estimate the coordinates of the unknown radio source. The obtained estimates for the case with UAVs and stationary receiving points are compared, and the obtained estimates are compared for different versions of the UAV trajectory. Based on the results of the simulation is shown that the use of UAVs improves positioning accuracy more than 6 times: from 60 meters for a scenario of five fixed receiving points to 9 meters for a scenario of three stationary and two UAVs.