Cost-effective, asynchronous inter-sensor distance estimation using trigonometry

Abstract

Precise estimation of inter-sensor distances is essential for reliable localisation in Internet of Things sensor networks. A cost-effective, scalable, asynchronous solution to estimate inter-sensor distances based solely on measurements of distances to a moving object is proposed. More specifically, the proposed solution estimates uncharted distances using trigonometry and processes these estimated distances with a distributed weighted multi-dimensional scaling algorithm for more precise localisation of sensors. It is demonstrated that the proposed solution achieves the localisation error of 4.8-33.9 cm when the measurement errors of sensor devices are in the range of 5-40%. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016.