Outdoor Localization Based on RSS Ranging Aided by Pedestrian Dead Reckoning in GPS Restricted Scenario

Abstract

The dependence on Global Positioning System (GPS) in outdoor localization is increasing day by day. For the security/surveillance operations, location information is important for both command centers and field commanders. However, GPS information is difficult to use in case of GPS disturbances and GPS shaded area. In this paper, we propose a localization method for ad-hoc sensor network using Received Signal Strength (RSS) based ranging, Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) and last available GPS coordinates. Since the RSS based ranging error gets very large for some harsh environment and the cumulative error of PDR increases over time, each of two methods is difficult to be applied standalone for localization in prolonged outdoor environment. To provide reliable localization performance, we propose a fusion algorithm that complements the problems of two methods mentioned above. Moreover, we apply an empirical path loss model for three typical outdoor environments, comparing two methods with the proposed method, respectively. Simulation results show that our proposed method complements the absence of GPS update and presents better localization accuracy than when using only PDR or RSS based ranging.