Airborne Angle-Only Geolocalization

Airborne angle-only geolocalization is the localization of objects on ground level from airborne vehicles (AV) using bearing measurements, namely azimuth and elevation. This thesis aims to introduce elevation data of the terrain to the airborne angle-only geolocalization problem and to demonstrate that it could be applicable for localization of jammers. Jammers are often used for deliberate interference with malicious intent which could interfere with the positioning system of a vehicle. It is important to locate the jammers to either avoid them or to remove them. Three localization methods, i.e. the nonlinear least squares (NLS), the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), are implemented and tested on simulated data. The methods are also compared to the theoretical lower bound, the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB), to see if there is an efficient estimator. The simulated data are different scenarios where the number of AVs, the relative flight path of the AVs and the knowledge of the terrain can differ. Using the knowledge of the terrain elevation, the methods give more consistent localization than without it. Without elevation data, the localization relies on good geometry of the problem, i.e. the relative flight path of the AVs, while the geometry is not as critical when elevation data is available. However, the elevation data does not always improve the localization for certain geometries. There is no method that is clearly better than the others when elevation data is used. The methods’ performances are very similar and they all converge to the CRLB but that could also be an advantage. This makes the usage of elevation data not restricted to a certain method and it leaves more up to the implementer which method they prefer