A system for positioning an unmanned aerial vehicle is provided including a position reference system including an electromagnetic radiation transmitter configured to modulate a transmission signal to encode location information associated with a coordinate system relative to the electromagnetic radiation transmitter. The system further includes an unmanned aerial vehicle including at least one control device configured to control a position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and an electromagnetic radiation receiver configured to receive the transmission signal. The unmanned aerial vehicle further includes a control system configured to control the at least one control device based at least in part on the location information received by the electromagnetic radiation receiver.