A high-accuracy, low-cost localization system for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The problem of localization of wireless sensor nodes has long been regarded as very difficult to solve, when considering the realities of real world environments. In this paper, we formally describe, design, implement and evaluate a novel localization system, called Spotlight. Our system uses the spatio-temporal properties of well controlled events in the network (e.g., light), to obtain the locations of sensor nodes. We demonstrate that a high accuracy in localization can be achieved without the aid of expensive hardware on the sensor nodes, as required by other localization systems. We evaluate the performance of our system in deployments of Mica2 and XSM motes. Through performance evaluations of a real system deployed outdoors, we obtain a 20cm localization error. A sensor network, with any number of nodes, deployed in a 2500m 2 area, can be localized in under 10 minutes, using a device that costs less than $1000. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a sub-meter localization error, obtained in an outdoor environment, without equipping the wireless sensor nodes with specialized ranging hardware.

Modeling and Optimizing Positional Accuracy Based on Hyperbolic Geometry for the Adaptive Radio Interferometric Positioning System

“…There is a class of techniques that detect the sequence of some artificially generated events from an event scheduler. For example, Spotlight [13] and Lighthouse [12] correlate the event detection time of a sensor node with the known spatiotemporal relationship. Then, the detection events can be mapped into a possible position.…”

“…To address this need, there have been many sensor network localization systems utilizing different sensing techniques, e.g., MoteTrack [9], Cricket [10], Spotlight [13], APIT [14], ENSBox [16], etc. Among them, the radio interferometric positioning (RIP) method from the NEST project [1] has shown a promising, exciting location sensing technique for sensor network applications.…”

A Survey on Localization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

“…The Lighthouse [43] and Spotlight [44] localization techniques use a light beacon to determine node position. Although both methods claim high accuracy, they require line of sight, a powerful light source that will perform well in lighted areas, and customized hardware for the light source.…”

On accurate and efficient statistical counting in sensor-based surveillance systems

“…We consider a network model where counting sensor nodes are randomly deployed in a region (e.g., an open area or a room in a building) with known locations [14,15]. They are used to monitor different types of targets, such as vehicles on the road, people in the room, or any other objects of interests.…”