Exploring Radio Frequency-Based UAV Localization Techniques: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and WSNs (wireless sensor networks) are now two well-established technologies for monitoring, target tracking, event detection, and remote sensing. Typically, WSN is made up of thousands or even millions of tiny, battery-operated devices that measure, gather, and send information from their surroundings to a base station or sink. Within the realm of wireless positioning and communication, UAVs have garnered a lot of interest because of their remarkable mobility and simplistic deployment to tackle the problems of imprecise sensor placement, inadequate infrastructure coverage, and the massive quantity of sensing data that WSN collects. A crucial prerequisite for many position-based WSN applications is node location, or localization. The use of UAVs for localization is more preferable than permanent terrestrial anchor nodes due to their high accuracy and minimal implementation complexity. The possible interference or signal block in such an operating environment, however, might cause the Global Positioning System (GPS) to become ineffective or unobtainable. In these conditions, the need for innovative UAV-based sensor node location technologies has become essential. Radio frequency (RF)-based localization techniques are reviewed in the current paper. We examine the available RF features for localization and look into the current approaches that work well for unmanned vehicles. The most recent research on RF-based UAV localization is reviewed, along with potential avenues for future investigation.