Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Cluster Communication–Navigation Integrated Cooperative Positioning Algorithm Based on China Satellite Network

Chengkai Tang, Songnian Zhang, Zesheng Dan, Yangyang Liu, Lingling Zhang

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) clusters have broad applications in agricultural detection, traffic control, and disaster rescue, where navigation and positioning serve as the core technology. However, satellite navigation fails to meet the requirements of region-wide navigation due to the urban canyon effect. Although the China Satellite Network (CSN) boasts advantages such as high landing power and low latency, it can only achieve single-link communication. Consequently, exploring how to realize cooperative positioning via UAV clusters has become an urgent research need. In this paper, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Cluster Communication–Navigation Integrated Cooperative Positioning (UCNCP) algorithm is proposed. This algorithm combines the communication and navigation characteristics of the CSN, establishes a single pseudorange measurement model and cluster geometric topology, and constructs an architecture for cooperative positioning based on UAV cluster pseudorange measurements and inter-UAV ranging data, thereby achieving reliable navigation and positioning of UAV clusters. Comparative experiments between the proposed method and other low-orbit satellite positioning methods demonstrate that the UCNCP algorithm exhibits higher positioning stability. When abrupt changes occur in navigation information, it can effectively mitigate the impact of abrupt change errors on positioning accuracy, improving the positioning stability of UAV clusters by more than 30%.