Research on Purely Azimuth Passive Localization Model for UAV Formation Flight

Abstract The practical applications of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation passive localization demand high accuracy and anti-interference ability. In this paper, a novel passive localization model based on analytical geometry and improved damped Gauss-Newton optimization method is proposed, which incorporates the improved damped Gauss-Newton algorithm and the error-based iterative algorithm for real-time coordinate correction of formation. Through Matlab simulation experiments, the proposed error-based iterative algorithm can stabilize the flight formation after only 24 iterations, and the distance error between each UAV and the specified position is only 1.2%. Moreover, in the case of signal loss, only four UAVs are required to transmit signals to localize a circular flying formation consisting of 10 UAVs. The model provides a theoretical method for passive localization and control of UAV formations in purely azimuthal flights.