Exploiting Orientation Information to Improve Range-Based Localization Accuracy

This work addresses target localization problem in precarious surroundings where possibly no links are line of sight. It exploits the known architecture of available reference points to act as an irregular antenna array in order to estimate the azimuth angle between a reference point and a target, based on distance estimates withdrawn from integrated received signal strength (RSS) and time of arrival (TOA) observations. These fictitious azimuth angle observations are then used to linearize the measurement models, which triggers effortless derivation of a new estimator in a closed-form. It is shown here that, by using fixed network geometry in which target orientation with respect to a line formed by a pair of anchors can be correctly estimated, the localization performance can be significantly enhanced. The new approach is validated through computer simulations, which corroborate our intuition of profiting from inherent information within a network.