Limits of trilateration-based sensor placement algorithms

Abstract

Abstract-To localize a mobile vehicle in a predefined area, it is possible to resort to a positioning system using beacons. The questions arising then are: what is the right number of beacons to deploy, and where should they be positioned to accurately localize the target. With a sensor placement algorithm, it is possible to generate a configuration of the beacons that optimize some quality criteria. However, designing the objectives to optimize is not simple, and the solution of the sensor placement algorithm may not always ensures a good localization in practice. This work evaluates the impact of the objectives of a sensor placement algorithm on different localization techniques. We show that criteria based on trilateration are not sufficient anymore when the localization is done with other techniques than trilateration. Indeed, data fusion-based localization algorithms use additional information such as odometry, and are less sensitive to poor coverage or poor beacon configurations than trilateration. Thus, designing new criteria taking into account the dynamics of the vehicle would probably improve further the placements and use less beacons for the same performance.