UAV Path Planning Method for Passive Radar Transmitter Localization

In the broad and unknown environments, mobile deployment of passive radar often faces challenges in promptly obtaining the precise location information of third-party transmitter stations. To address this issue, a transmitter localization method based on cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) path planning is proposed. Firstly, a single UAV is used as a cooperative target to establish the localization model and measurement equation in a two-dimensional scenario, and the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm is employed for solution. Then, an optimization function is constructed by integrating Fisher information and control parameter constraints to dynamically plan the UAV trajectory, thereby improving the accuracy of transmitter localization and the practicality of this method. Finally, simulation experiments show that under the maximum control distance constraint, the positioning result of the proposed method is better than that of straight-line track and typical optimized track, and the final positioning accuracy is less than the standard deviation of the bistatic distance difference measurements, which can meet the application requirements of the passive radar system. © 2024 Science Press. All rights reserved.