Cooperative Terrain-Based GNSS-Denied Navigation With Particle Filter

Abstract

Terrain-based Navigation (TBN) is a widely used navigation method for aircraft and missiles when GNSS applications are not reliable. However, this method encounters the issue of state estimation uncertainty when flying over flat areas such as the sea, fields, or where the landforms are very similar. We propose a cooperative particle filter-based approach to address this issue, exploiting information sharing between aircraft information flights. Assuming that the relative positions of the aircraft in the fleet are known, each air vehicle makes a state estimation with its particle filter (PF) and sends this position information to the other plane. The shared information and the relative positions of the aircraft are compared to decide whether the estimated positions are correct. Additionally, in cases of uncertainty where it is challenging to calculate the position, the uncertainty is eliminated through the shared information. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well regarding flight accuracy in various terrains.