Energy-Efficient Multi-UAV Cooperative Localization by Measurement Scheduling

Hanyu Wang and Xingqun Zhan

Abstract:	Multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems have attracted considerable attention due to their wide range of applications. Cooperative localization can improve localization performance and reduce hardware cost of multi-UAV systems. In large-scale swarms, UAVs transmit information to their neighbors, leading to huge communication load. To reduce communication cost and achieve energy-efficient cooperative localization, various optimization approaches have been developed to determine the optimal fusion strategy. The fusion strategy is divided into measurement topology and fusion topology. The measurement topology represents which relative measurements are fused while the fusion topology describes how these measurements are fused. However, the influence mechanisms of measurement topology and fusion topology are different, posing great challenges on the optimization algorithm design. To address this issue, we propose a measurement scheduling method. First, the influence mechanism of fusion topology is analyzed. An important result is obtained: for a given measurement topology, different fusion topologies yield equivalent localization performance. Based on this result, a joint model that indicates the actually used measurements can be established to represent the measurement topology and fusion topology. Consequently, the fusion strategy optimization problem can be transformed into a measurement scheduling problem. Inspired by this, we analyze the influence of different measurements on the localization performance of a UAV. We find that each relative measurements can be classified into different levels based on the number of intermediate relative measurements between it and the target UAV. And the measurements at the same level exhibit identical influence mechanisms. Based on the analysis, a greedy algorithm is designed to solve the measurement scheduling problem. To improve efficiency, the measurement scheduling of each UAV is performed individually. Simulations of a 50-UAV system and a 100-UAV system are carried out to validate the proposed method. The results prove the effectiveness of the greedy algorithm.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025) September 8 - 12, 2025 Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor Baltimore, Maryland
Pages:	427 - 436
Cite this article:	Wang, Hanyu, Zhan, Xingqun, "Energy-Efficient Multi-UAV Cooperative Localization by Measurement Scheduling," Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 427-436. https://doi.org/10.33012/2025.20356
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