Multi-agent tracking in wireless sensor networks : model and algorithm

In this work an algorithm to track multiple agents in an indoor Wireless Sensor Actor Network is proposed. The algorithm falls into the category of the radio frequency localization/tracking methods, since it exploits the strength of the wireless communications among nodes to establish the position of a set of mobile nodes within a network of fixed nodes placed in known locations. In this sense, a radio channel model is introduced that allows to estimate the distances among nodes to attain localization and tracking (range-based approach). Moreover, to compensate for the scant robustness of power measurements, the loss effects induced by wireless communication, the intrinsic uncertainty of unstructured environments, the algorithm resorts to an Extended Kalman Filter to process the node measurements and reach a desired level of tracking performance. Finally, the design phase is validated through the implementation and the experiments on a real testbed. Key–Words: wireless sensor network, localization, tracking, Kalman filter