Single Vehicle Localization and Routing in GPS-Denied Environments Using Range-Only Measurements

Path planning algorithms for unmanned aerial or ground vehicles rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) information for localization in many surveillance and reconnaissance applications. However, disruption of GPS signals, by intention or otherwise, can render these algorithms ineffective. This paper provides a way of addressing this issue by leveraging range information from additionally placed stationary objects in the environment called Landmarks (LMs). The placement of LMs and the route followed by the vehicle is posed as an integer program such that the total travel and LM placement cost is minimized. The proposed formulation of the optimization problem also allows for a limited field-of-view of the sensor on-board the vehicle. For instances that are hard to solve for optimal solutions using the integer program, we present two fast heuristics to find good feasible solutions. We provide a systematic framework and algorithms for the problem, and evaluate the system using numerical, simulation and experimental results.