Conception of a Low-Cost Location System for an Unmanned Ground Vehicle

This article analyzes the possibility of using different sensors for a low-cost location system for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). Based on the adopted assumptions, a concept of a location system based on Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology is proposed. Determining a signal processing scheme with minimal localization errors required performing simulation studies. To reflect the actual operating conditions of UWB modules, noise in distance measurements was assumed. The signal processing was then conducted by testing various signal filtering methods, e.g., Moving mean, LOESS, RLOESS, Savitzky–Golay, Hampel, and Median Filter, in MATLAB/Simulink R2023b. To evaluate the filtering results, the Sum of Squared Errors (SSE), the Mean Squared Error (MSE), and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) quality indicators were adopted, and the total localization errors were determined. The best selected filter combination improved the SSE and MSE indicators by approximately 82% and the MAE by approximately 59%, while the mean total error decreased by about 42% to 0.045 m.