English

Uncertainty-Aware 3D UAV Tracking Using Single-Anchor UWB Measurements

Systems and Control 2025-12-22 v1 Systems and Control

Abstract

In this letter, we present an uncertainty-aware single-anchor Ultra-Wideband (UWB)-based 3D tracking framework. Specifically, a mobile Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) maintains a desired standoff distance to a moving target using range and 3D bearing measurements from a multi-antenna UWB anchor rigidly mounted on the UAV. To enhance the stability and safety under measurement degradation and motion uncertainty, we jointly design a robust factor-graph-based target localization method and a covariance-aware control Lyapunov function--control barrier function (CLF--CBF) tracking controller. This controller adaptively adjusts distance bounds and safety margins based on the posterior target covariance provided by the factor graph. The proposed system is evaluated through numerical simulations and real-world experiments carried out in a narrow indoor corridor environment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.17249,
  title  = {Uncertainty-Aware 3D UAV Tracking Using Single-Anchor UWB Measurements},
  author = {Yuqi Ping and Junwei Wu and Bofeng Zheng and Fan Liu and Tianhao Liang and Tingting Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.17249},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:32:51.962Z