iDROP: Robust Localization for Indoor Navigation of Drones with Optimized Beacon Placement

Drones in many applications need the ability to fly fully or partially autonomously to accomplish their mission. To allow these fully/partially autonomous flights, first, the drone needs to be able to locate itself constantly. Then the navigation command signal would be generated and passed on to the controller unit of the drone. In this paper, we propose a localization scheme for drones called iDROP (Robust Localization for Indoor Navigation of Drones with Optimized Beacon Placement) that is specifically devised for GPS-denied environments (e.g., indoor spaces). Instead of GPS signals, iDROP relies on speaker-generated ultrasonic acoustic signals to enable a drone to estimate its location. In general, localization error is due to two factors: the ranging error and the error induced by relative geometry between the transmitters and the receiver. iDROP mitigates these two types of errors and provides a high-precision three-dimensional localization scheme for drones. iDROP employs a waveform that is robust against multi-path fading. Moreover, by placing beacons in optimal locations, it reduces the localization error induced by the relative geometry between the transmitters and the receiver.