Mobile Element Assisted Cooperative Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks with Obstacles

In this paper, a cooperative localization algorithm is proposed that considers the existence of obstacles in mobility-assisted wireless sensor networks (WSNs). An optimal movement scheduling method with mobile elements (MEs) is proposed to address limitations of static WSNs in node localization. In this scheme, a mobile anchor node cooperates with static sensor nodes and moves actively to refine location performance. It takes advantage of cooperation between MEs and static sensors while, at the same time, taking into account the relay node availability to make the best use of beacon signals. For achieving high localization accuracy and coverage, a novel convex position estimation algorithm is proposed, which can effectively solve the problem when infeasible points occur because of the effects of radio irregularity and obstacles. This method is the only range-free based convex method to solve the localization problem when the feasible set of localization inequalities is empty. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm.