A New Distributed Localization Method for Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel distributed localization algorithm for sensor networks that overcomes the convex hull limitation of previous methods, enabling accurate localization in more general network configurations using only relative distance measurements.

Contribution

It presents a new criterion for sign determination of barycentric coordinates and a distributed algorithm that guarantees asymptotic localization without the convex hull constraint.

Findings

Successfully localizes sensors outside the convex hull

Ensures asymptotic convergence of sensor positions

Operates solely on relative distance measurements

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of determining the sensor locations in a large sensor network using relative distance (range) measurements only. Our work follows from a seminal paper by Khan et al. [1] where a distributed algorithm, known as DILOC, for sensor localization is given using the barycentric coordinate. A main limitation of the DILOC algorithm is that all sensor nodes must be inside the convex hull of the anchor nodes. In this paper, we consider a general sensor network without the convex hull assumption, which incurs challenges in determining the sign pattern of the barycentric coordinate. A criterion is developed to address this issue based on available distance measurements. Also, a new distributed algorithm is proposed to guarantee the asymptotic localization of all localizable sensor nodes.