We present a range-based solution for indoor relative localization by Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), achieving sufficient accuracy for leader-follower flight. Moving forward from previous work, we removed the dependency on a common heading measurement by the MAVs, making the relative localization accuracy independent of magnetometer readings. We found that this restricts the relative maneuvers that guarantee observability, and also that higher accuracy range measurements are required to rectify the missing heading information, yet both disadvantages can be tackled. Our implementation uses Ultra Wide Band, for both range measurements between MAVs and sharing their velocities, accelerations, yaw rates, and height with each other. We used this on real MAVs and performed leader-follower flight in an indoor environment. The follower MAVs could follow the leader MAV in close proximity for the entire durations of the flights. The followers were autonomous and used only on-board sensors to track and follow the leader.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.