UAV-Based Trilateration System for Localization and Tracking of Radio-Tagged Flying Insects: Development and Field Evaluation

Abstract

As the interest in ecosystem protection increases, many researchers are focusing on tracking flying insects to preserve biodiversity. Invasive alien species (IAS) such as Vespa velutina nigrithorax require extensive consideration in this regard owing to size and weight limitations. In this paper, we propose and experimentally validate an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based trilateration system for localization and tracking of flying insects. The proposed tracking algorithm is based on the use of multiple omnidirectional antennas, and it improves the tracking accuracy and shortens the tracking time compared to those of the existing unidirectional antennas. In addition, we reduce the measurement error and noise by applying a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to the received signal strength (RSS) emitted from the radio-telemetry transmitter. A field experiment involving the proposed trilateration system was conducted in an apiary. This experiment was divided into three sub-experiments as follows: 1) behavior experiment, 2) ground truth experiment, and 3) localization and tracking experiment. The proposed system contributes to the research on UAV-based tracking systems that respond to the speed of spreading of invasive V. velutina.