Abstract:A three-dimensional intersection localization method for moving target using two vision-based UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), which did not rely on the distance information from the target point to the UAV was proposed. An interacting multiple model estimator was adopted to the localization method to solve the problem of not knowing the motion form of the moving target. A modified Sage-Husa adaptive filtering algorithm that synthesized the covariance matching technique and the positive definiteness judgment was used to improve the accuracy of localization. To assess the performance of these approaches, a set of simulations that carried out under realistic conditions were presented. Results show that the method proposed can get the accurate three-dimensional coordinates of the target. The modified Sage-Husa adaptive filtering algorithm can improve the localization accuracy significantly, with the average estimation error reduced from 27.13 m to 14.62 m under the intersection angle of 90°. The influence of the intersection angle on localization was studied in the simulation, which shows that too small intersection angle is not conductive to the improvement of localization accuracy, a larger intersection angle is good for the localization method without filtering, but the effect on the method with the modified Sage-Husa adaptive filtering algorithm is not significant.