A Performance Analysis on Swarm Drone Loco Positioning System for Time Difference of Arrival Protocol

Abstract

There is an increasing application potential in swarm technology, accuracy in localization becomes a critical factor in the system in executing the desired task. As there are various localization techniques, this paper focuses on analyzing the performance of a particular radio localization technique called the Loco Positioning System operating on the Time Difference of Arrival protocol subjected to various setup configurations. The research starts with the design of various setup configurations are based on two independent parameters which are, number of anchors, and distance between anchors as they prominently affect the accuracy of the system. Position estimates are obtained by manually moving the Crazyflie equipped with a Tag within a grid system and the values are reflected through the PC client. The position estimates are then compared to the true values to obtain a relative error which is used to define the performance of the system. Data showed that operating on 4 anchors offers relatively low error and increasing the number of anchors to 8 significantly improves the accuracy of the system. Additionally, increasing the distance between anchors from 0.6 m to 2 m also improves the accuracy in the system. The obtained data offers a clear relationship between accuracy and the mentioned parameters, and a good combination of both parameters also affects the accuracy of the system. This paper offers both recommended applications and data which will aid users of the loco positioning system in determining the optimal setup based on their set of constraints.