Bearing angle based cooperative source localization

This paper deals with the cooperative source localization problem with the goal of having an accurate estimate of the coordinate of the source cooperatively by a group of unicycle-type mobile agents. Neither absolute positioning information nor a common sense of direction is shared by the agents. Each agent gets its estimate about the source´s coordinate in its own local frame based on the bearing measurements about its neighbors (that may or may not include the source) together with its own linear and angular speed information. A continuous time estimation scheme and a distributed fusion scheme are proposed for this goal such that the source´s relative coordinate can be estimated at any time by each agent no matter whether it can directly detect the source or not. The globally asymptotic convergence of the estimation scheme and the fusion scheme is rigorously analyzed. Simulation results are also provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.