Simulation based Analysis of High Precision UAV Tracking with Robotic Total Stations

Abstract

This contribution presents the concept of the TrackDrone project, which aims at high-precision determination of UAV-trajectories based on total station measurements, and the implementation of a Monte Carlo simulation to assess the potential of the proposed concept. The functional model considering the latencies exhibited by the total station as well as the setup accuracy is presented. This work investigates only the 3D position of the UAV and lays the foundation for research towards the 6-DOF trajectory. In addition to describing the implementation of the simulation, a sensitivity analysis with respect to the extrinsic temporal calibration parameter is performed showing the dependence of the resulting RMSE on the uncertainty of the calibration parameters and the velocity