Indoor blind localization of smartphones by means of sensor data fusion

Locating the nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSN) is currently a very active area of research due to their increasing number of potential applications. Networks composed of smartphones have gained particular interest, mainly due to the high availability of such devices. This paper presents an algorithm for blind localization of smartphones in a WSN. Data fusion from different embedded sensors is combined to estimate the position and orientation of the nodes within the network. The algorithm uses acoustic and RF signals to estimate the angle and range between each pair of nodes. The different node position estimations are further combined. Our proposal yields location errors lower than 0.5 m., which is a valid solution for many WSN applications.