The ability of robots to estimate their location is crucial for a wide variety of autonomous operations. In settings where GPS is unavailable, measurements of transmissions from fixed beacons provide an effective means of estimating a robot's location as it navigates. The accuracy of such a beacon-based localization system depends both on how beacons are distributed in the environment, and how the robot's location is inferred based on noisy and potentially ambiguous measurements. We propose an approach for making these design decisions automatically and without expert supervision, by explicitly searching for the placement and inference strategies that, together, are optimal for a given environment. Since this search is computationally expensive, our approach encodes beacon placement as a differential neural layer that interfaces with a neural network for inference. This formulation allows us to employ standard techniques for training neural networks to carry out the joint optimization. We evaluate this approach on a variety of environments and settings, and find that it is able to discover designs that enable high localization accuracy.
Most of the effort in localization is typically devoted to finding accurate inference methods, assuming the distribution and location of beacons in the environment are given. One setting for these methods is where sensor measurements can be assumed to provide direct, albeit possibly noisy, measurements of relative range or bearing from beacons---an assumption that is typically based on a simple model for signal propagation. Location estimation then proceeds by using these relative range and or bearing estimates and knowledge of beacon locations. For example, acoustic long baseline (LBL) networks are frequently used to localize underwater vehicles @cite_2 @cite_8 , while a number of low-cost systems exist that use RF and ultrasound to measure range @cite_13 @cite_15 .
@cite_8 @cite_15 @cite_13 @cite_2
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The localization of sensor nodes is a fundamental problem in sensor networks and can be implemented using powerful and expensive beacons. Beacons, the fewer the better, can acquire their position knowledge either from GPS devices or by virtue of being manually placed. In this paper, we propose a distributed method to localization of sensor nodes using a single moving beacon, where sensor nodes compute their position estimate based on the range-free technique. Two parameters are critical to the location accuracy of sensor nodes: the radio transmission range of the beacon and how often the beacon broadcasts its position. Theoretical analysis shows that these two parameters determine the upper bound of the estimation error when the traverse route of the beacon is a straight line. We extend the position estimate when the traverse route of the beacon is randomly chosen in a real-world situation, where the radio irregularity might cause a node to miss some crucial coordinate information from the beacon. We further point out that the movement pattern of the beacon plays a pivotal role in the localization task for sensors. To minimize estimation errors, sensor nodes can carry out a variety of algorithms in accordance with the movement of the beacon. Simulation results compare variants of the distributed method in a variety of testing environments. Real experiments show that the proposed method is feasible and can estimate the location of sensor nodes accurately, given a single moving beacon. In this paper, a received signal strength (RSS) based localization technique is investigated for underwater optical wireless sensor networks (UOWSNs) where optical noise sources (e.g., sunlight, background, thermal, and dark current) and channel impairments of seawater (e.g., absorption, scattering, and turbulence) pose significant challenges. Hence, we propose a localization technique that works on the noisy ranging measurements embedded in a higher dimensional space and localize the sensor network in a low dimensional space. Once the neighborhood information is measured, a weighted network graph is constructed, which contains the one-hop neighbor distance estimations. A novel approach is developed to complete the missing distances in the kernel matrix. The output of the proposed technique is fused with Helmert transformation to refine the final location estimation with the help of anchors. The simulation results show that the root means square positioning error (RMSPE) of the proposed technique is more robust and accurate compared to baseline and manifold regularization. We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve accurate localization and tracking of a target in a randomly placed wireless sensor network composed of inexpensive components of limited accuracy. The crucial enabler for this is a reasonably accurate local coordinate system aligned with the global coordinates. We present an algorithm for creating such a coordinate system without the use of global control, globally accessible beacon signals, or accurate estimates of inter-sensor distances. The coordinate system is robust and automatically adapts to the failure or addition of sensors. Extensive theoretical analysis and simulation results are presented. Two key theoretical results are: there is a critical minimum average neighborhood size of 15 for good accuracy and there is a fundamental limit on the resolution of any coordinate system determined strictly from local communication. Our simulation results show that we can achieve position accuracy to within 20 of the radio range even when there is variation of up to 10 in the signal strength of the radios. The algorithm improves with finer quantizations of inter-sensor distance estimates: with 6 levels of quantization position errors better than 10 are achieved. Finally we show how the algorithm gracefully generalizes to target tracking tasks. In this paper, we consider the indoor localization problem, i.e., identifying the Cartesian coordinates of an object or a person under the roof. To solve this problem we consider an RF-based localization method called profiling , a two-step process, where a radio map of the monitored area is first constructed by collecting signal strength from known locations. An unknown location is then predicted using this radio map as a reference. In this paper, we first propose a K nearest neighbor (KNN) profiling-based localization method dubbed LEMON (location estimation by mining oversampled neighborhoods). It is based on a low-cost, low-power wireless devices and ensures good accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art. We then propose a variant of LEMON called combinatorial localization which exhaustively searches for the best possible set of nearest neighbors. We further define a Bayesian network model for the same localization problem. The performance of these methods is evaluated through extensive experiments in various indoor areas. We found an interesting outcome that the simple KNN-based approach can offer better localization accuracy compared to other complex localization methods. Thus we further enhance the performance of the KNN-based approach using multiple RF channels. Many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) require location information of the randomly deployed nodes. A common solution to the localization problem is to deploy a few special beacon nodes having location awareness, which help the ordinary nodes to localize. In this approach, non-beacon nodes estimate their locations using noisy distance measurements from three or more non-collinear beacons they can receive signals from. In this paper, the ranging-based localization task is formulated as a multidimensional optimization problem, and addressed using bio-inspired algorithms, exploiting their quick convergence to quality solutions. An investigation on distributed iterative localization is presented in this paper. Here, the nodes that get localized in an iteration act as references for remaining nodes to localize. The problem has been addressed using particle swarm optimization (PSO) and bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA). A comparison of the performances of PSO and BFA in terms of the number of nodes localized, localization accuracy and computation time is presented. Most autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems rely on prior knowledge of beacon locations for localization. We present a system capable of navigating without prior beacon locations. Noise and outliers are major issues; we present a powerful outlier rejection method that imposes geometric constraints on measurements. We have successfully applied our algorithm to real-world data and have demonstrated navigation performance comparable to that of systems that assume known beacon locations. Bluetooth beacons' signal is used to provide low-cost indoor localization.Sensor fusion approach with RGB-D camera is adopted to improve position accuracy.Customer positions allows to track shoppers movements and push context notifications.Customer paths are analyzed and clustered for customer behavior analysis.System can evaluate shop performances and support retailers' decision making process. The development of reliable and precise indoor localization systems would considerably improve the ability to investigate shopper movements and behavior inside retail environments. Previous approaches used either computer vision technologies or the analysis of signals emitted by communication devices (beacons). While computer vision approaches provide higher level of accuracy, beacons cover a wider operational area. In this paper, we propose a sensor fusion approach between active radio beacons and RGB-D cameras. This system, used in an intelligent retail environment where cameras are already installed for other purposes, allows an affordable environment set-up and a low operational costs for customer indoor localization and tracking. We adopted a Kalman filter to fuse localization data from radio signals emitted by beacons are used to track users' mobile devices and RGB-D cameras used to refine position estimations. By combing coarse localization datasets from active beacons and RGB-D data from sparse cameras, we demonstrate that the indoor position estimation is strongly enhanced. The aim of this general framework is to provide retailers with useful information by analyzing consumer activities inside the store. To prove the robustness of our approach, several tests were conducted into a real indoor showroom by analyzing real customers behavior with encouraging results. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are extensively applied in civil and military areas. Localization is an essential prerequisite for many WSN applications, and is often based on beacons that provide geographical information in real time. Mobile Beacons (MB) can be used to replace many static beacons with paths that can be controlled in real-time. Robotic and or flight vehicles can work as MBs. In this paper we consider the use of reinforcement learning (RL) (a significant branch of machine learning) to control MBs. Usually, RL needs an infinite series of episodes to determine an optimal policy. We propose however a method of localization employing mobile beacon whose behavior will be controlled by an adapted RL algorithm. A MB learns and makes decisions based on weighted information collected from unknown sensors. Simulation results show that the adapted RL algorithm provides sufficient information to the MB to localise unknown sensors in a lightweight but effective way. This paper deals with the determination of the position and orientation of a mobile robot from distance measurements provided by a belt of onboard ultrasonic sensors. The environment is assumed to be two-dimensional, and a map of its landmarks is available to the robot. In this context, classical localization methods have three main limitations. First, each data point provided by a sensor must be associated with a given landmark. This data-association step turns out to be extremely complex and time-consuming, and its results can usually not be guaranteed. The second limitation is that these methods are based on linearization, which makes them inherently local. The third limitation is their lack of robustness to outliers due, e.g., to sensor malfunctions or outdated maps. By contrast, the method proposed here, based on interval analysis, bypasses the data-association step, handles the problem as nonlinear and in a global way and is (extraordinarily) robust to outliers. In traditional radio-based localization methods, the target object has to carry a transmitter (e.g., active RFID), a receiver (e.g., 802.11x detector), or a transceiver (e.g., sensor node). However, in some applications, such as safe guard systems, it is not possible to meet this precondition. In this paper, we propose a model of signal dynamics to allow tracking of transceiver-free objects. Based on radio signal strength indicator (RSSI), which is readily available in wireless communication, three tracking algorithms are proposed to eliminate noise behaviors and improve accuracy. The midpoint and intersection algorithms can be applied to track a single object without calibration, while the best-cover algorithm has potential to track multiple objects but requires calibration. Our experimental test-bed is a grid sensor array based on MICA2 sensor nodes. The experimental results show that the best side length between sensor nodes in the grid is 2 meters and the best-cover algorithm can reach localization accuracy to 0.99 m Over the last years, many different methods have been proposed for indoor localization and navigation services based on Radio frequency (RF) technology and Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The accuracy achieved with such systems is typically low, mainly due to the variability of RSSI values, unsuitable for classic localization methods (e.g. triangulation). In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on multiple neural networks. We demonstrate with experimental results that by training and then activating different neural networks, tailored on the user orientation, high definition accuracy is achievable, allowing indoor navigation with a cost effective Bluetooth (BT) architecture. Underwater wireless technologies demand to transmit at higher data rate for ocean exploration. Currently, large coverage is achieved by acoustic sensor networks with low data rate, high cost, high latency, high power consumption, and negative impact on marine mammals. Meanwhile, optical communication for underwater networks has the advantage of the higher data rate albeit for limited communication distances. Moreover, energy consumption is another major problem for underwater sensor networks, due to limited battery power and difficulty in replacing or recharging the battery of a sensor node. The ultimate solution to this problem is to add energy harvesting capability to the acoustic-optical sensor nodes. Localization of underwater sensor networks is of utmost importance because the data collected from underwater sensor nodes is useful only if the location of the nodes is known. Therefore, a novel localization technique for energy harvesting hybrid acoustic-optical underwater wireless sensor networks (AO-UWSNs) is proposed. AO-UWSN employs optical communication for higher data rate at a short transmission distance and employs acoustic communication for low data rate and long transmission distance. A hybrid received signal strength (RSS) based localization technique is proposed to localize the nodes in AO-UWSNs. The proposed technique combines the noisy RSS based measurements from acoustic communication and optical communication and estimates the final locations of acoustic-optical sensor nodes. A weighted multiple observations paradigm is proposed for hybrid estimated distances to suppress the noisy observations and give more importance to the accurate observations. Furthermore, the closed form solution for Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) is derived for localization accuracy of the proposed technique. Wireless Sensor Networks have been proposed for a multitude of location-dependent applications. For such systems, the cost and limitations of the hardware on sensing nodes prevent the use of range-based localization schemes that depend on absolute point-to-point distance estimates. Because coarse accuracy is sufficient for most sensor network applications, solutions in range-free localization are being pursued as a cost-effective alternative to more expensive range-based approaches. In this paper, we present APIT, a novel localization algorithm that is range-free. We show that our APIT scheme performs best when an irregular radio pattern and random node placement are considered, and low communication overhead is desired. We compare our work via extensive simulation, with three state-of-the-art range-free localization schemes to identify the preferable system configurations of each. In addition, we study the effect of location error on routing and tracking performance. We show that routing performance and tracking accuracy are not significantly affected by localization error when the error is less than 0.4 times the communication radio radius. During the last decades, location based services have become very popular and the developed indoor positioning systems have achieved an impressive accuracy. The problem though is that even if the only requirement is room-level localization, those systems are most of the times not cost-efficient and not easy to set-up, since they often require time-consuming calibration procedures. This paper presents a low-cost, threshold-based approach and introduces an algorithm that takes into account both the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and the geometry of the rooms the beacons are placed in. Performance evaluation was done via measurements in an office environment composed of three rooms and in a house environment composed of six rooms. The experimental results show an improved accuracy in room detection when using the proposed algorithm, compared to when only considering the RSSI readings. This method was developed to provide context awareness to the international research project named SmartHeat. The projects aims to provide a system that efficiently heats a house, room by room, based on the habitants' habits and preferences. In recent years the need for indoor localisation has increased. Earlier systems have been deployed in order to demonstrate that indoor localisation can be done. Many researchers are referring to location estimation as a crucial component in numerous applications. There is no standard in indoor localisation thus the selection of an existing system needs to be done based on the environment being tracked, the accuracy and the precision required. Modern localisation systems use various techniques such as Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Time of Arrival (TOA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Angle of Arrival (AOA). This paper is a survey of various active and passive localisation techniques developed over the years. The majority of the localisation techniques are part of the active systems class due to the necessity of tags electronic devices carried by the person being tracked or mounted on objects in order to estimate their position. The second class called passive localisation represents the estimation of a person's position without the need for a physical device i.e. tags or sensors. The assessment of the localisation systems is based on the wireless technology used, positioning algorithm, accuracy and precision, complexity, scalability and costs. In this paper we are comparing various systems presenting their advantages and disadvantages. Accurate and low-cost sensor localization is a critical requirement for the deployment of wireless sensor networks in a wide variety of applications. In cooperative localization, sensors work together in a peer-to-peer manner to make measurements and then forms a map of the network. Various application requirements influence the design of sensor localization systems. In this article, the authors describe the measurement-based statistical models useful to describe time-of-arrival (TOA), angle-of-arrival (AOA), and received-signal-strength (RSS) measurements in wireless sensor networks. Wideband and ultra-wideband (UWB) measurements, and RF and acoustic media are also discussed. Using the models, the authors have shown the calculation of a Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) on the location estimation precision possible for a given set of measurements. The article briefly surveys a large and growing body of sensor localization algorithms. This article is intended to emphasize the basic statistical signal processing background necessary to understand the state-of-the-art and to make progress in the new and largely open areas of sensor network localization research. An asynchronous position measurement system is proposed for indoor localization in this paper. The demonstrated system consists of a UWB transmitter and several energy detection receivers whose positions are known. The position measurement process starts with the locator emitting a UWB pulse. Upon arrival, the pulse is amplified and retransmitted by the target to be located. Signals from both the locator and the target are captured by the receivers. No synchronization mechanism is implemented. Instead, the proposed system measures the differential TOA between the direct coupling signal of the locator and the target signal. Together with the knowledge of the locator transmitter and receiver positions, the absolute range that the pulse travels can be calculated. The sum of transmitter-target range and target-receiver range defines an ellipse and the target resides on the intersections of several such ellipses. It is shown via the Cramer-Rao lower bound that the absolute-range-based elliptical localization is potentially more accurate than the relative-range-based hyperbolic localization. Our proposed system is able to achieve positioning error bound comparable to synchronous absolute-range-based localization systems while eliminating the cost of synchronization. This paper considers the noisy range-only network localization problem in which measurements of relative distances between agents are used to estimate their positions in networked systems. When distance information is noisy, existence and uniqueness of location solution are usually not guaranteed. It is well known that in presence of distance measurement noise, a node may have discontinuous deformations (e.g., flip ambiguities and discontinuous flex ambiguities). Thus, there are two issues that we consider in the noisy localization problem. The first one is the location estimate error propagated from distance measurement noise. We compare two kinds of analytical location error computation methods by assuming that each distance is corrupted with independent Gaussian random noise. These analytical results help us to understand effects of the measurement noises on the position estimation accuracy. After that, based on multidimensional scaling theory, we propose a distributed localization algorithm to solve the noisy range network localization problem. Our approach is robust to distance measurement noise, and it can be implemented in any random case without considering the network setup constraints. Moreover, a refined version of distributed noisy range localization method is developed, which achieves a good tradeoff between computational effort and global convergence especially in large-scale networks. As sensor-rich mobile devices became a commodity, more opportunities appeared for the creation of location-aware services. While GPS is a well established solution for outdoor localization, there is still no standard solution for localization indoors. This paper presents a novel accurate indoor positioning mechanism that is meant to run in common smartphones to be a readily and widely available solution. The system is based on multiple gait-model based filtering techniques for accurate movement quantification in combination with an advanced fused positioning mechanism that leverages sequences of opportunistic observations towards an accurate localization process. Magnetic field fluctuations, Wi-Fi readings and movement data are incrementally matched with a feature spot map containing multi-dimensional spatially-related features that characterize the building. A novel and convenient way of mapping the architectural and environmental properties of buildings is also introduced, which avoids the burden normally associated with the process. The system has been evaluated by multiple users in open and crowded spaces where overall median localization errors between 1.11 m and 1.68 m were obtained. While the reported errors are already satisfactory in the context of indoor localization, improvements may be readily achieved through the inclusion of additional reference features. High accuracy performance coupled with an opportunistic and infrastructure-free approach creates a very desirable solution for the indoor localization market doge. In this paper we present a prototype system for image based localization in urban environments. Given a database of views of city street scenes tagged by GPS locations, the system computes the GPS location of a novel query view. We first use a wide-baseline matching technique based on SIFT features to select the closest views in the database. Often due to a large change of viewpoint and presence of repetitive structures, a large percentage of matches (> 50 ) are not correct correspondences. The subsequent motion estimation between the query view and the reference view, is then handled by a novel and efficient robust estimation technique capable of dealing with large percentage of outliers. This stage is also accompanied by a model selection step among the fundamental matrix and the homography. Once the motion between the closest reference views is estimated, the location of the query view is then obtained by triangulation of translation directions. Approximate solutions for cases when triangulation cannot be obtained reliably are also described. The presented system is tested on the dataset used in ICCV 2005 Computer Vision Contest and is shown to have higher accuracy than previous reported results.