Accurate Localization Scheme using Lateration in Indoor Environments

In an indoor localization method taking the lateration-based approach, the location of a target is estimated with the location of anchor points (APs) and the approximated distances between the target and APs using received signal strength (RSS) measurements. The accuracy of distance estimation affects the localization accuracy of a lateration-based method. Since a radio propagation environment varies randomly in time and space, the highest RSSs do not necessarily give the best estimation of the distances between a target and APs. Thus, all APs hearing a target have been used for localization. However, the accuracy of a lateration-based method degrades if more APs beyond a certain threshold are used because the area of polygon with the APs increases. In this paper, we focus on reducing the size of the polygon to further increase the localization accuracy. We use the centroid of the polygon as a reference point to estimate the relative location of a target in the polygon. Once the relative location is estimated, only the APs which are closest to the target are used for localization to reduce the area of the polygon with the APs. We validate the proposed method by implementing an indoor localization system and evaluating the accuracy of the proposed method in the various experimental environments.