Lightweight 3D LiDAR-Based UAV Tracking: An Adaptive Extended Kalman Filtering Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, adaptive Kalman filtering system for 3D LiDAR-based UAV tracking, enabling reliable, real-time relative positioning on small drones in GPS-denied environments.

Contribution

It develops an adaptive Extended Kalman Filter that dynamically adjusts to sparse, noisy LiDAR data, improving tracking accuracy and robustness for small UAVs.

Findings

Outperforms standard Kalman and particle filters during aggressive maneuvers.

Maintains reliable tracking despite sparse and intermittent LiDAR detections.

Enables GPS-denied relative positioning suitable for small UAVs.

Abstract

Accurate relative positioning is crucial for swarm aerial robotics, enabling coordinated flight and collision avoidance. Although vision-based tracking has been extensively studied, 3D LiDAR-based methods remain underutilized despite their robustness under varying lighting conditions. Existing systems often rely on bulky, power-intensive sensors, making them impractical for small UAVs with strict payload and energy constraints. This paper presents a lightweight LiDAR-based UAV tracking system incorporating an Adaptive Extended Kalman Filter (AEKF) framework. Our approach effectively addresses the challenges posed by sparse, noisy, and nonuniform point cloud data generated by non-repetitive scanning 3D LiDARs, ensuring reliable tracking while remaining suitable for small drones with strict payload constraints. Unlike conventional filtering techniques, the proposed method dynamically adjusts the noise covariance matrices using innovation and residual statistics, thereby enhancing tracking accuracy under real-world conditions. Additionally, a recovery mechanism ensures continuity of tracking during temporary detection failures caused by scattered LiDAR returns or occlusions. Experimental validation was performed using a Livox Mid-360 LiDAR mounted on a DJI F550 UAV in real-world flight scenarios. The proposed method demonstrated robust UAV tracking performance under sparse LiDAR returns and intermittent detections, consistently outperforming both standard Kalman filtering and particle filtering approaches during aggressive maneuvers. These results confirm that the framework enables reliable relative positioning in GPS-denied environments without the need for multi-sensor arrays or external infrastructure.