Experimental Results of UAS Localization and Tracking by Passive TDoA

This paper introduces the design, efficient implementation, and experimental validation of a Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA)-based localization system for real-time positioning of small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in an area spanning approximately 300 acres. Leveraging commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components such as an affordable software-defined radio (SDR) receiver and a Blade RF, the system attains real-time position estimation, where 90% of the localization errors were less than 5 meters. Additionally, the system exhibits a median latency of 1.3 seconds. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that showcases real-time field-experimental results that move away from Matlab-based simulations, for passive RF TDoA localization of UAS. The proposed methodology is versatile, suitable for a range of localization scenarios such as security, cyber radio-frequency (RF), and search-and-rescue (SAR) applications.