Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

August 4-7, 2010, Xi'an, China

Cooperative Localization of UAV Based on Information

Synchronization
Yaohong Qu, Youmin Zhang, Senior Member, IEEEQingli Zhou
AbstractInformation synchronization is the key technology
of multi-UAV in formation flight. Based on the linear update
law, this paper develops a general analytical solution of
synchronization for a ring communication topological structure.
Considering the fact that GPS is vulnerable to fail in some
circumstances which may lead to that the localization of the
UAV cannot continue, we propose a localization method by
other members measurements in the UAV team. First, we
assume that these UAVs construct a ring communication
topological structure and all the units in the network can
respectively obtain the position information of the UAV by
measuring the relative range and the azimuth from the UAV.
Next, the information is synchronized in the ring
communication network and it converges to a same value.
Finally, the data is communicated to the UAV whose GPS
receiver works improperly so that the UAV is capable of
continuing the navigation task. Simulation results in
Matlab/Simulink show the effectiveness of the proposed
approach.

I. INTRODUCTION

OWADAYS, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are

increasingly used in military and scientific research, and
the long-term availability of UAVs navigation and
localization is independent of correction of the nonautonomous navigation equipments, such as global
positioning system (GPS), GLNASS, Loran-C, and so on. In
practical applications, we select one of them to carry out
integrated navigation with inertial navigation system (INS).
Usually, the most common navigation form is integrating INS
with GPS since the short-term accuracy of INS and long-term
accuracy of GPS are complementary [1-4]. Once the GPS is
affected by external interference, noise or failure/malfunction
in receiving equipment, the accuracy of localization gets
worse quickly. Kalman filter seems a good solution to deal
with it, but the long-term and fault tolerant navigation

Manuscript received March 20, 2010. This work is supported in part by

National Natural Sciences Foundation of China under Grant 60974146 and
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
through a Strategic Project Grant (STPGP 350889-07) and a Discovery
Project Grant.
Y. Qu is with the School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xian, 710072, P. R. China (Corresponding author phone:
029-88493142; e-mail: qyh0809@nwpu.edu.cn). He is currently a Visiting
Scholar at the Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia
University, Montreal, H3G 2W1, Canada.
Y. Zhang is with the Diagnosis, Flight Control and Simulation Lab, Dept.
of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal,
H3G 2W1, Canada (ymzhang@encs.concordia.ca).
Q. Zhou is with Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department,
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 2W1, Canada
(qi_zho@encs.concordia.ca).

978-1-4244-5141-8/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

problem has not been fundamentally resolved yet.

Considering the constraints on cost and payload size, there
are a significant number of low-cost and high-intelligent
UAVs equipped with GPS equipment only [5-7]. So, how to
use the limited cost of navigation information to achieve the
long voyage, fault tolerant navigation and localization,
becomes an important and challenging research topic in the
filed of UAV.
There have been significant researches in the area of
coordinated control of multiple vehicle systems in recent
years. Examples include spacecraft formation flying [8-10],
UAV formation flying [11-13], formation control for
underwater vehicles [14], coordinated rendezvous of UAVs
[15], coordinated path planning [16], task coordination for
UAVs [16,17], and multiple robot coordination [18].
Cooperation in multiple vehicle teams requires that
information be shared between team members so it makes
available navigation information resources of UAV increase
significantly.
In this paper, we show some of our recent research work
and findings about multi-UAV cooperation. The analytical
solution of synchronization for a ring communication
topological structure based on the linear information update
law [19] is developed first, and then the developed theory is
applied to the localization and navigation of multi-UAV
cooperation.
II. SYNCHRONIZATION OF INFORMATION IN MULTI-UAV
A. Theory of Information Synchronization
Let A = { A i | i = 1, 2 ,..., N `be a set of N UAVs whose
actions are to be coordinated in some fashion. We assume that
communication between UAVs can be both unidirectional
and bidirectional. Let G be a directed graph with N vertices
representing the UAVs and with edges representing
unidirectional communication links between UAVs. UAV Ai
is said to be a neighbor of UAV A j if there is a directed link
from Ai to A j . The graph G is called complete (fully
connected) if every pair of UAVs are neighbors of each other.
If G is complete, then the group of agents is also called
complete. A path is a sequence of distinct vertices such that
consecutive vertices are neighbors. If there is a path between
any two vertices of a graph, then G is said to be connected. If
G is connected, then the group of UAVs is said to be
connected. A directed tree is a directed graph, where every
vertex, except the root, has exactly one parent. A spanning

225

tree of a directed graph is a tree formed by graph edges that

connect all the vertices of the graph. The communication
topology at time t will be represented by the adjacency
matrix19.
1 if there is an edge from A j to Ai
(1)
Gij (t ) =
otherwise
0
Associated with each UAV is an information variable
i i = 1,2,..., N . Assume that i (t ) IR , and that i (t ) are
continuously differentiable functions in time. A link from
A j to Ai implies that j is communicated to Ai .

In this paper, we assume that the information variables are

updated according to the linear update law of the form [19]
N
(2)
 =
G ( ) , i = 1,2,..., N
i

j =1

ij

ij

where ij 0 are relative confidence gains, which represent

the magnitude of the information update from A j to Ai .

12 G12
22 G22

2 j G2 j
j=2

...

1N G1 N

...

2 N G2 N

...
... NN GNN

N 2 GN 2

...
N

j = 2 Nj GNj

...

(3)
To simplify notation, let B be a square matrix with
Bij = ij Gij and let be a diagonal matrix with

ij = j =1 ij Gij Therefore, Eq. (3) becomes

N

 = (B - )

The

(4)

B. Two-order Ring Topological Structure

Two-order ring topological structure is the most basic
mode of multi-UAV cooperation, which is composed of two
UAVs. In this case, any one UAV can also communicate
bidirectionally with the other. In other words, any UAV can
also transmit the messages to the other or receive the
messages from the other. 
Assume 1 and 2 are the information variables of

1
1
1

where C =

has

two

. Thus, we can get

a

0
1
1
C
exp[(B )t ] = C

a
+
b
t
0
exp[
(
)
]

(7)

(t ) = exp[( B )t ] (0)

(8)

and

b ( a + b) a ( a + b)
 (0)
 (t ) =
b ( a + b) a ( a + b)

C. Three-order Ring Topological Structure

For the three-order ring topological structure, we can
calculate the synchronization value of information in the
same way above.
A1

21

13
32

A2

A3

Fig. 2 Three-order ring topological structure

Similarly, let a =

21

b =

32

12


For simplicity, let a = 21 , b = 12 , = [ 1 2 ] The

T

0 1
adjacency matrix is G =
. Then, according to Eq. (2),
1 0
and the update law is

c =

13

= [1 2 3 ]T . The adjacency matrix is

0 0 1

G = 1 0 0
0 1 0

Fig. 1 Two-order ring topological structure

(10)

Hence, according to the conclusion above, the information

synchronizes to the weighted sum of the initial state of the
two information variables.

21
A2

(B - )

matrix

eigenvalues 1 = 0, 2 = (a + b) . To calculate the value of

uniform synchronization, we diagonalize the matrix B ,
0
0

 (6)
C 1 ( B )C =
0 ( a + b)

UAV A1 and UAV A2 respectively. 21 , 12 are their

credibility factor. Figure 1 is the corresponding
communication topological structure.

A1

(5)

Thereforethe synchronization value of information is the

stable solution of the system (5) and is relative to the initial
value of each UAV.
(9)
() = exp[( B )t ] (0) | t
Then, the value can also be written by

Eq. (2) can also be written in the matrix form

N
11G11
j = 2 1 j G1 j

21G21
 =

...

N 1GN 1

a a
.
b b

 =

Then, the update law becomes

a
a 0

 = b b 0
0
c c

and the eigenvalues of matrix (B - ) are

(11)

(12)

1 = 0, 2, 3 = [(a + b + c) (a + b + c) 2 4(bc + ac + ab) ] 2

(13)

226

where 2 may be equal to 3 . So the matrix B is

diagonalized in following two cases.
Case 1: 2 3
0
0
exp(1t )

exp[(B )t ] = C 0
exp( 2 t )
0 C 1
0
0
exp(3 t )

(14)


Fig. 3 N-order ring topological structure

where

The adjacency matrix of N-order ring topological structure

(for example N=6) is

1
1

C = 1 b ( 2 + b ) b ( 3 + b )
1 ( + a ) a ( + a ) a
2
3

(15)

() = exp[( B )t ] (0) | t .

(16)

1
0
G=
0

0
0

and
Then, the synchronization value can be given by
bc ac ab

1
(t ) =
bc ac ab (0)
ac + bc + ab

bc ac ab

(17)

Case 2: 2 = 3

(18)

1
1
b

C = 1

2 +b

1 2 + a

b( 2 + b 1)
( 2 + b ) 2

2 + a +1

(19)

and
 () = exp[( B )t ] (0) | t

(22)

Note that the elements of next to the principal diagonal

below and the top-right are one and others are zero. Therefore,
according to the update law, we can get the matrix of system,

0
0

1
a+b+c
a + b + c 1
exp[(B )t ] = C 0 exp(
t ) t exp(
t) C

2
2

a+b+c
0
exp(
t)
0
2

Here, the diagonalization matrix is

0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 1 0

21

= 32

21

32

43

43

54

54

65

65

16

16

(23)

From the result above, we can draw a conclusion that the

synchronization value of the information should be the mean
of the initial states of all UAVs. That is
1
(t ) =
(i )
(24)
N
Without loss of the generality, we take the 10-order ring
communication topological structure as an example and the
results of simulation are shown in Fig. 4.

(20)

Therefore, the synchronization value can be given by

 (t ) =

bc ac ab

1
bc ac ab  (0)
ac + bc + ab

bc ac ab

(21)

Comparing Eq. (17) with Eq. (21), we get the same

conclusion that the information converges to the weighted
sum of the initial state of the three information variables.
D. N-order Ring Topological Structure
For the N-order ring topological structure, the analytical
solution of information synchronization is much more
complex.
If
the
relative
confidence
gains
ij ( i = 1,..., N ; j = 1,..., N ) are different, it is difficult to
calculate the synchronization value of information for
N-order ring structure. To simplify, assume that all of ij are

(a)

ij =1 for 10 UAVs

(b)

ij =10 for 10 UAVs

Fig. 4 The results of information synchronization in 10-order ring

communication topological structure

The initial values of ten UAVs are in order of 0.1, 0.2, ,

1.0 respectively. The mean is 0.55. From Fig. 4, we can find
that the relative confidence gains

ij

only affect the time of

synchronization but not the synchronization value (0.55) of

the system.

same.

III. COOPERATIVE LOCALIZATION OF MULTI-UAV

A. Cooperative Localization Method
In this section, we propose a method of cooperative
227

of Ai are respectively (0m, 0m), (1000m, 0m), (0m, 1000m)

and (1000m, 1000m), here Pi (i = 1,2,3,4) IR 2 and A4 loses
its GPS information during the flight. Then, the other three
UAVs, Ai (i = 1,2,3) can measure the position of A4 and
communicate the information with each other. Here, the
localizing circular error probability (CEP) of the UAVs is
about 10m, the accuracy of ranging is 10m, and the accuracy
of azimuth angle is 2 milliradian. Because the information is
synchronized in the ring topological network, the position of
A4 is improved greatly in accuracy. To simplify the
simulation, let 21 = 32 = 13 is equal to one.

1000

localization with multi-UAV ring communication topological

structure. In this case, each UAV in the group can
communicate its information to the next UAV and all the
UAVs are equipped with GPS receivers and airborne radars
which can measure the position of a UAV by calculating the
relative distance and the absolute angle.
Considering all the UAVs flying in level at same height,
assume that a UAVs GPS receiver does not work and the
other UAVs can measure its position based on their positions.
According to the above process, the information is
communicated to converge to a constant value in the network.
Then, one of the UAV passes the position information to the
measured UAV so that it can continue to localize again. Of
course, if any one UAVs GPS signal is broken, the
communication system can be reconfigured by others so that
the UAV can obtain its position information again. Therefore,
by this means the UAV can fly in the circumstances where the
GPS is vulnerable to accidental or deliberate interference that
can cause it to fail.

Y
3

B. Localization Error Analysis

Assume that the position measurement equations by Ai is
given by:
x = x i + l i cos( i )
i = 1,2,3 .
(25)

y = y i + l i sin( i )
Then, we can obtain the error equations by differentiating
Eq. (25).
x = xi l i sin( i ) i + cos( i )l i
i = 1,2,3 ,
(26)

y = y i + l i cos( i ) i + sin( i )l i

where l is the measured range and is the measured

azimuth angle.
According to the ideas above, the synchronization
information should be the mean of the initial states
of Ai , i = 1,2,3 . Let P represent the position of A4 , and
p i , i = 1,2,3 are respectively the initial measured positions of

A4 by Ai , i = 1,2,3 , in order. That is, the synchronization value

is
1 3
P = i p i
(27)
3
Because the variables p i , i = 1,2,3 are not relevant to each
other, their variances satisfy the following relation
1 3
v 42 = 1 v i2
(28)
9
Especially, if v12 = v 22 = v32 = v 2 , the variance of A4 can be
expressed as v 42 = v 2 3 , which means the measuring accuracy
can be improved by two third if all the signals are unbiased
estimate.
C. Simulation Results and Analysis
(1) Example 1
The formation, as shown in Fig. 5, consists of four UAVs.
Without loss of the generality, assume that the positions Pi

1000

Fig. 5 A formation flight with four UAVs

As Fig. 6 demonstrated, the measuring information of

every member in the 3-order ring communication topological
structure can be synchronized and the top sub-graphs show
the x axial and y axial coordinate values of UAV A4 which are
measured by other UAVs and Figures 6(c) and (d) describe
the errors between them and the normal values.
Furthermore, from Fig. 6(e), we can see that the maximum
ratio between stable value (20m) and initial value (>60m) is
about two third, which is well in line with the conclusion
above.
(2) Example 2
In a formation flight in 2D scenarios, assume that four
UAVs are flying in counterclockwise direction along their
respective circular trajectory with a radius of 100m and their
initial positions are located at (0m, 0m), (4000m, 0m), (0m,
4000m) and (4000m, 4000m) in order, as shown in Fig. 7.
Because of deliberate interference from enemies, one of the
members A4 loses its GPS information during the flight and
the other conditions are the same as above (1).
In Fig. 8, we show the errors of the measured position of A4.
Obviously, we can see the distance error of UAV A4 between
the synchronized trajectory and the normal trajectory is about
100m after synchronization, but the error between the
measuring trajectory from A1 and the normal trajectory is up
to 200m above. So, the cooperative localization accuracy is
much better than the trajectory measured only by the UAV
A1.
From the trajectory of UAV A4 by cooperative localization
in Fig. 9, we also draw the same conclusion.

228

1040

4000

1020
position of X(m)

UAV1
UAV2
UAV3

1000

980

960
0

time

(a)

1080
UAV1
UAV2
UAV3

Fig. 7 Four UAVs are flying in a formation along

a circular trajectories with radius of 100m

1040
300

1020
1000
980

time

(b)

100
0
-100
-200

50
UAV1
UAV2
UAV3

40
erro of X(m )

error of coorperative positioning

error of postioning only from UAV A1

200
error of the distance(m)

position of Y(m )

1060

4000

-300

5
time

10

Fig. 8 Error of the cooperative localization

30
4350

20

Normal Position
Coorperative Position
Measuring Position from UAV1

4300
4250

10

4200

4150

10
Y(m)

time

(c)

4050

70

4000

UAV1
UAV2
UAV3

60
50
erro of Y (m )

4100

3950
3900
3850
3700

40
30

3800

3900

4000
X(m)

4100

4200

4300

Fig. 9 The measured trajectory of UAV A4 after cooperative localization

20

IV. CONCLUSION

10
0

10

time

(d)

erro of distance

80
UAV1
UAV2
UAV3

60
40
20
0

time

(e)
Fig. 6 The position error of the UAV A4 .

Generally, the traditional navigation and localization

means are mostly based on GPS. However, the GPS is very
vulnerable to fail in some special circumstances such as battle
fields and bad weather conditions so that the UAVs have to
abandon their task or even crash directly. Therefore, it is very
important to develop fault tolerant localization methods in a
long voyage. With the development of multi-UAV
cooperation and communication technology, the navigation
and localization resources become more and more available
because most of information can be shared in the
communication network
Based on the linear information update law, we study on
the information synchronization of multi-UAV formation
flight. Employed communication network is a ring
communication topological structure. For the two-order or

229

three-order ring communication topological structure, we

present the general analytical solutions to synchronization
information which is the weighted sum of the initial state of
the information variables. Each weight coefficient is the
proportion of the relative confidence gains. For the high order
ring topological structure, its much more sophisticated to
obtain the general solutions. By simplifying the derivation,
we assume all the relative confidence gains are the same and
conclude that the synchronization value of information
should be the mean of all the UAVs initial states.
Furthermore, assuming a UAVs GPS receiver fails, we
integrate the information synchronization with the
localization of UAV and proposed a method of localization
and navigation. This method synchronizes the position
measurements of multi-UAV in the ring communication
structure to estimate the position of the UAV whose GPS
receiver works improperly, and the simulation results prove
that its feasible for the UAV to continue localizing its
position after the GPS receiver is in malfunction condition.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank all the colleagues of the
Diagnosis, Flight Control and Simulation Lab in Concordia
University for their help.
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