Snake optimizer LSTM-based UWB positioning method for unmanned crane

Position determination is a critical technical challenge to be addressed in the unmanned and intelligent advancement of crane systems. Traditional positioning techniques, such as those based on magnetic grating or encoders, are limited to measuring the positions of the main carriage and trolley. However, during crane operations, accurately determining the position of the load becomes problematic when it undergoes swinging motions. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a novel Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) positioning method for unmanned crane systems, leveraging the Snake Optimizer Long Short-Term Memory (SO-LSTM) framework. The objective is to achieve real-time and precise localization of the crane hook. The proposed method establishes a multi-base station and multi-tag UWB positioning system using a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) combined with Two-Way Ranging (TWR) scheme. This system enables the acquisition of distance measurements between the mobile tag and UWB base stations. Furthermore, the hyperparameters of the LSTM network are optimized using the Snake Optimizer algorithm to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of UWB positioning estimation. Experimental results demonstrate that the SO-LSTM-based positioning method yields a maximum positioning error of 0.1125 meters and a root mean square error of 0.0589 meters. In comparison to conventional approaches such as the least squares method (LS) and the Kalman filter method (KF), the proposed SO-LSTM-based positioning method significantly reduces the root mean square error (RMSE) by 63.39% and 58.01%, respectively, while also decreasing the maximum positioning error (MPE) by 60.77% and 52.65%.