Light-Guided Autonomous Drone Navigation for Indoor GPS-Denied Environments

Abstract

Autonomous drones operating in indoor environments cannot rely on the global positioning system (GPS) signals for precise navigation due to severe signal attenuation and multipath interference in GPS-denied spaces. This paper presents a novel Li-Fi-based optical positioning, and combined with high-sensitivity photodiode sensor arrays, to enable robust drone guidance in challenging indoor environments where conventional radio-frequency localization fails. The proposed system uses strategically distributed ceiling-mounted Light Emitting Diode (LED) luminaires across the operational space, each transmitting unique identification codes through high-frequency light modulation at rates imperceptible to human vision, thereby maintaining dual functionality for simultaneous illumination and positioning. Unlike existing VLC positioning studies that focus on static receivers, our system integrates real-time optical localization directly into the UAV control loop at 120 Hz, achieving closed-loop autonomous navigation without GPS or RF assistance. The system demonstrates sub-decimetric positioning accuracy (<8 cm), low latency (4.2 ms), and operates successfully on resource constrained micro-UAV platforms (250 g quadcopter with STM32 microcontroller. OpenELAB Technology Ltd., Garching bei München, Germany). Experimental validation includes complex 3D trajectory tracking, multi-room scalability analysis, and quantitative comparison with existing localization technologies, confirming the viability of Li-Fi guided autonomous flight for practical indoor application.

Keywords

Autonomous / Drones / Li-Fi / UAV / Latency / Localization / Modulation / Indoor / Channel

Author Contributions

Methodology, Writing—original draft, L.H.; Validation, Supervision, A.D. and P.L.; Writing—review and editing, L.H. and P.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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