Optimal minimally constrained system in cooperative localization

In cooperative localization, minimally constrained system (MCS) refers to the minimal number of global (continuous) constraints which are indispensable for deriving node absolute locations. This paper investigates the optimality and practicability of the MCS. After deriving an optimal MCS and proving that the optimality depends on the node ground truth locations, a geometric approach to construct MCS is proposed. This approach “superimposes” the node relative locations onto a given reference, which achieves the optimality when the reference reaches the node ground truth locations. The geometrically constructed MCS can be applied to cooperative localization with rough prior locations, where the performance is confirmed in simulations and experiments.