A joint 3D localization and synchronization solution for Wireless Sensor Networks using UAV

Localization and synchronization are fundamental services in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), since it is often required to know the position and the global time of sensor nodes to relate a given event detection to a specific location and time. However, the localization and synchronization tasks are often performed after the sensor nodes´ deployment. Since manual configuration of sensor nodes is an impractical activity, it is necessary to rely on specialized algorithms to solve the localization and synchronization problems. With this in mind, in this work we propose a joint solution for the 3D localization and time synchronization in WSNs using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A UAV equipped with a GPS flies over the sensor field area broadcasting its geographical position. Therefore, sensor nodes are able to estimate their own geographical position and global time without the need of equipping them with a GPS device. By means of simulations, we show that our proposed joint solution leads to smaller time-synchronization and localization errors when compared to existing solutions.