Open Systems Laboratory at Illinois

Cooperative tracking with binary-detection sensor networks

By Kirill Mechitov, Sameer Sundresh, YoungMin Kwon, and Gul Agha. In SenSys, 332–333. ACM, 2003.

Publisher Link:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/958491.958546

Abstract

We present a novel method for tracking the movement of people or vehicles in open outdoor environments using sensor networks. Unlike other sensor network-based methods, which depend on determining distance to the target or the angle of arrival of the signal, our cooperative tracking approach requires only that a sensor be able to determine if an object is somewhere within the maximum detection range of the sensor. We propose cooperative tracking as a method for tracking moving objects and extrapolating their paths in the short term. By combining data from neighboring sensors, this approach enables tracking with a resolution higher than that of the individual sensors being used. We employ statistical estimation and approximation techniques to further increase the tracking precision, and to enable the system to exploit the tradeoff between accuracy and timeliness of the results. We analyze the behavior of the cooperative tracking algorithm through simulation, focusing on the effects of approximation techniques on the quality of estimates achieved. This work focuses on acoustic tracking, however the presented methodology is applicable to any sensing modality where the sensing range is relatively uniform.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{conf/sensys/MechitovSKA03,
    author = "Mechitov, Kirill and Sundresh, Sameer and Kwon,
              YoungMin and Agha, Gul",
    editor = "Akyildiz, Ian F. and Estrin, Deborah and Culler, David
              E. and Srivastava, Mani B.",
    title = "Cooperative tracking with binary-detection sensor
             networks",
    booktitle = "SenSys",
    crossref = "conf/sensys/2003",
    ee = "http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/958491.958546",
    keywords = "sensor networks, real-time systems",
    pages = "332-333",
    year = "2003",
}

@proceedings{conf/sensys/2003,
    editor = "Akyildiz, Ian F. and Estrin, Deborah and Culler, David
              E. and Srivastava, Mani B.",
    title = "Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on
             Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, SenSys 2003, Los Angeles,
             California, USA, November 5-7, 2003",
    isbn = "1-58113-707-9",
    publisher = "ACM",
    year = "2003",
}