A brain-inspired localization system for the UAV based on navigation cells

Purpose - To solve problems of low intelligence and poor robustness of traditional navigation systems, the purpose of this paper is to propose a brain-inspired localization method of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Design/methodology/approach - First, the yaw angle of the UAV is obtained by modeling head direction cells with one-dimension continuous attractor neural network (1 D-CANN) and then inputs into 3D grid cells. After that, the motion information of the UAV is encoded as the firing of 3 D grid cells using 3 D-CANN. Finally, the current position of the UAV can be decoded from the neuron firing through the period-adic method. Findings - Simulation results suggest that continuous yaw and position information can be generated from the conjunctive model of head direction cells and grid cells. Originality/value - The proposed period-adic cell decoding method can provide a UAV with the 3 D position, which is more intelligent and robust than traditional navigation methods.