Networks of UAVs of Low Complexity for Time-Critical Localization

Future networks of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)will be tasked to carry out ever-increasing complex operationsthat are time-critical and that require accurate localizationperformance, such as tracking the position of a malicious user.Since there is the need to preserve low UAV complexity whiletackling the challenging goals of missions in effective ways, onekey aspect is the UAV intelligence (UAV-I). The UAV's intelligenceincludes the UAV's capability to process information and makedecisions, e.g., to decide where to sense and whether to delegatesome tasks to other network entities. This paper overviews someexisting signal processing techniques for distributed estimationand autonomous navigation of UAVs of low complexity. To thisend, we show some of the needs of the UAVs for running efficientlocalization operations for time-limited missions, performedeither as a team or individually. Further, we focus on differentnetwork configurations, which possibly include assistance withedge computing. We also discuss open problems and futureperspectives for these settings.