Chen, F.Rezatofighi, S.H.Ranasinghe, D.C.2025-07-242025-07-242025IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2025; 10(4):3755-37622377-37662377-3766https://hdl.handle.net/2440/146305Autonomous aerial vehicles can provide efficient and effective solutions for radio frequency (RF) source tracking and localizing problems with applications ranging from wildlife conservation to search and rescue operations. Existing lightweight, lowcost, bearing measurements-based methods with a single antennareceiver sensor system configurations necessitate in situ rotations, leading to substantial measurement acquisition times restricting searchable areas and number of measurements. We propose a GyroCopter for the task. Our approach plans the trajectory of a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) whilst utilizing UAV flight dynamics to execute a constant gyration motion to derive “pseudobearing” measurements to track RF sources. The gyration-based pseudo-bearing approach: i) significantly reduces the limitations associated with in situ rotation bearing; while ii) capitalizing on the simplicity, affordability, and lightweight nature of signal strength measurement acquisition hardware to estimate bearings. This method distinguishes itself from other pseudo-bearing approaches by eliminating the need for additional hardware to maintain simplicity, lightweightness and cost-effectiveness. To validate our approach, we derived the optimal rotation speed and conducted extensive simulations and field missions with our GyroCopter to track and localize multiple RF sources. The results confirm the effectiveness of our method, highlighting its potential as a practical and rapid solution for RF source localization tasks—demo video at https://youtu.be/BmR1_ykCxj0en© 2024 IEEE. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining, and training of artificial intelligence and similar technologies. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.Search and rescue robots; localization; aerial systems: applications.Journal article10.1109/lra.2024.3512999723023Chen, F. [0000-0002-4487-5867]Ranasinghe, D.C. [0000-0002-2008-9255]