Wireless Transmitter Localization Using Passive Sensing Enhanced With UAV-Mounted RIS

Abstract

This paper studies the use of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-borne Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) to localize arbitrary transmitters using Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA). Applications include jammer localization and search-and-rescue scenarios, where there is insufficient knowledge of the transmitter characteristics. Our methodology improves on classical TDoA systems by not requiring geographically separated, precisely synchronized receivers or having previous knowledge of the propagation environment. By utilizing the high mobility of the UAV, we position the RIS anywhere and redirect the signal to a centralized receiver, where synchronization is trivial. The added RIS in the signal path incurs extra travel time. By compensating for this additional time during the delay computation, we simplify the problem back to classical TDoA for localization, without the need for separated and synchronized receivers. Extensive simulations show that our system can achieve sub 10-meter-level accuracy for transmitters up to 500 meters away.