A Lightweight Collaborative Fault Tolerant Target Localization System for Wireless Sensor Networks

Efficient target localization in wireless sensor networks is a complex and challenging task. Many past assumptions for target localization are not valid for wireless sensor networks. Limited hardware resources, energy conservation, and noise disruption due to wireless channel contention and instrumentation noise pose new constraints on designers nowadays. In this work, a lightweight acoustic target localization system for wireless sensor networks based on time difference of arrival (TDOA) is presented. When an event is detected, each sensor belonging to a group calculates an estimate of the target's location. A FuzzyART data fusion center detects errors and fuses estimates according to a decision tree based on spatial correlation and consensus vote. Moreover, a MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks (EB-MAC) is developed which is tailored for event-based systems that characterizes acoustic target localization systems. The system was implemented on MicaZ motes with TinyOS and a PIC 18F8720 microcontroller board as a coprocessor. Errors were detected and eliminated hence acquiring a fault tolerant operation. Furthermore, EB-MAC provided a reliable communication platform where high channel contention was lowered while maintaining high throughput.