In this paper we study the distance-based docking problem of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by using a single landmark placed at an arbitrarily unknown position. To solve the problem, we propose an integrated estimation-control scheme to simultaneously achieve the relative localization and navigation tasks for discrete-time integrators under bounded velocity: a nonlinear adaptive estimation scheme to estimate the relative position to the landmark, and a delicate control scheme to ensure both the convergence of the estimation and the asymptotic docking at the given landmark. A rigorous proof of convergence is provided by invoking the discrete-time LaSalle's invariance principle, and we also validate our theoretical findings on quadcopters equipped with ultra-wideband ranging sensors and optical flow sensors in a GPS-less environment.
@article{arxiv.1807.01865,
title = {An integrated localization-navigation scheme for distance-based docking of UAVs},
author = {Thien-Minh Nguyen and Zhirong Qiu and Muqing Cao and Thien Hoang Nguyen and Lihua Xie},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.01865},
year = {2019}
}