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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Robust distribution sensor network localization with noisy range measurements

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This thesis describes a distributed, linear-time algorithm for localizing sensor network nodes in the presence of range measurement noise and demonstrates the algorithm on a physical network. We introduce the probabilistic notion of robust quadrilaterals as a way to avoid flip ambiguities that otherwise corrupt localization computations. We formulate the localization problem as a two-dimensional graph realization problem: given a planar graph with approximately known edge lengths, recover the Euclidean position of each vertex up to a global rotation and translation. This formulation is applicable to the localization of sensor networks in which each node can estimate the distance to each of its neighbors, but no absolute position reference such as GPS or fixed anchor nodes is available. We implemented the algorithm on a physical sensor network and empirically assessed its accuracy and performance. Also, in simulation, we demonstrate that the algorithm scales to large networks and handles real-world deployment geometries. Finally, we show how the algorithm supports localization of mobile nodes.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2005

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Moore, David Christopher, 1981-
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Seth Teller, John J. Leonard and Daniela L. Rus.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30168
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30168

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Moore, David Christopher, 1981-. Robust distribution sensor network localization with noisy range measurements. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30168