Cooperative Localization

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Overview

Cooperative localization studies how multiple agents estimate their positions and orientations by combining their own motion data with observations of one another. Methods include decentralized Kalman filters, factor-graph optimization, consensus and message passing, using measurements such as UWB or acoustic ranges, visual bearings, LiDAR, and inertial data. It supports navigation in GNSS-denied or infrastructure-free settings, from indoor robot teams and aerial formations to underwater vehicles and wearable devices. A central challenge is balancing accuracy and consistency against limited, delayed, or unreliable communication, while weak observability and shared position errors can make relative measurements insufficient without an absolute reference.

Latest papers

CardsList

42 papers8 papers in the last four weeks, up 167% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Bringing Network Coding into Multi-Robot Systems: Interplay Study for Autonomous Systems over Wireless Communications

    Mar 18, 2026Anil Zaher, Kiril Solovey, Alejandro CohenMulti-Robot SystemsMulti-Robot Coordination

    Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

  2. Decentralized Cooperative Localization for Multi-Robot Systems with Asynchronous Sensor Fusion

    Mar 12, 2026Nivand Khosravi, Niusha Khosravi, Mohammad Bozorg +1Cooperative Localization

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior T´ecnico, Lisbon, Portugal · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran · Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

  3. Robust Cooperative Localization in Featureless Environments: A Comparative Study of DCL, StCL, CCL, CI, and Standard-CL

    Mar 10, 2026Nivand Khosravi, Rodrigo Ventura, Meysam BasiriCooperative Localization

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR), Instituto Superior T´ecnico, Lisbon, Portugal

  4. Fly, Track, Land: Infrastructure-less Magnetic Localization for Heterogeneous UAV-UGV Teaming

    Mar 9, 2026Valerio Brunacci, Davide Plozza, Alessio De Angelis +2RoboticsWireless Localization

    Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, 06125, Italy · Multi-Robot Systems Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, 16627, Czech Republic · Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET), ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

  5. Integrated cooperative localization of heterogeneous measurement swarm: A unified data-driven method

    Mar 5, 2026Kunrui Ze, Wei Wang, Guibin Sun +3Cooperative LocalizationRobot Localization

    School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China · Zhongguancun Laboratory, Beijing 100083, China

  6. D-GVIO: A Buffer-Driven and Efficient Decentralized GNSS-Visual-Inertial State Estimator for Multi-Agent Systems

    Mar 2, 2026Yarong Luo, Wentao Lu, Chi Guo +1Robot State EstimationCooperative Localization

    School of Robotics, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China. · School of Electronic Information of Wuhan University, Hubei Luojia Laboratory, Wuhan 430072, China.

  7. Parallel Reference-Centric Continuous-Time Relative Localization with Augmented Clamped Non-Uniform B-Splines

    Feb 25, 2026Jiadong Lu, Zhehan Li, Tao Han +4Relative Pose EstimationMulti-Robot Systems

    State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China. · Huzhou Institute of Zhejiang University, Huzhou, 313000, China. · The School of Automation and Intellegent Sensing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. +1

  8. Distributed and Consistent Multi-Robot Visual-Inertial-Ranging Odometry on Lie Groups

    Feb 22, 2026Ziwei Kang, Yizhi ZhouRobot State EstimationRobot Localization

    School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, VA 102206, China · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

  9. Decentralized and Fully Onboard: Range-Aided Cooperative Localization and Navigation on Micro Aerial Vehicles

    Feb 18, 2026Abhishek Goudar, Angela P. SchoelligCooperative LocalizationRobot Navigation

    The authors are with the Learning Systems and Robotics Lab at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Canada. They are also affiliated with the University of Toronto Robotics Institute, the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

  10. CREPES-X: Hierarchical Bearing-Distance-Inertial Direct Cooperative Relative Pose Estimation System

    Dec 31, 2025Zhehan Li, Jiadong Lu, Zheng Wang +6Relative Pose EstimationMulti-Robot Systems

    State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. · Huzhou Institute of Zhejiang University, Huzhou, China. · University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. +1

  11. Reflection-Based Relative Localization for Cooperative UAV Teams Using Active Markers

    Nov 21, 2025Tim Lakemann, Daniel Bonilla Licea, Viktor Walter +1Relative Pose EstimationCooperative Localization

    Multi-Robot Systems Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 2, Prague, Czech Republic · Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco

  12. Observability-Aware Control for Quadrotor Formation Flight with Range-only Measurement

    Nov 6, 2024H S Helson Go, Ching Lok Chong, Longhao Qian +1Multi-Robot Formation ControlCooperative Localization

    Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, 4925 Dufferin St., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T6 · Oxford University, OCIAM