Improving the accuracy of connectivity-based positioning for mobile sensor networks

In this paper we present a new positioning algorithm, called Orbit, for mobile sensor networks. The algorithm runs in a fully distributed manner at all nodes. The information available to the algorithm is the radio range of the sensors and, the latest location estimates of neighbours and neighbours of neighbours. The algorithm has several novel aspects. First, we use geometric structures and results from unit disk graphs to impose tighter constraints on sensor positions. Second, we separate the set of possible positions of a node into connected subsets and possibly eliminate some subsets. Using simulations and data from radio experiments, we demonstrate that Orbit outperforms a recently proposed positioning algorithm WMCL-B in terms of positional accuracy for several communication and mobility models with a wide range of parameter values.