Range-Only Localization System for Small-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots

Accurate and robust localization plays a key role for autonomous aerial robots. Today, LiDAR-based and camerabased (indoors and outdoors) and GNSS-based (outdoors) solutions are widely used. However, the emergence of flapping-wing robots [1-3] has motivated a paradigm change. First, the limited payload and the resource-constrained computation impose a limitation on the number and type of sensors to be mounted [4]. Second, ornithopters' flapping strokes entail several challenges for perception (e.g., motion blur in cameras) [5]. Those restrictions are even more critical in the case of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAV) [6].