EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 
Volume 2003 (2003), Issue 4, Pages 321-337
doi:10.1155/S1110865703212075

Energy-Based Collaborative Source Localization Using Acoustic Microsensor Array

Dan Li and Yu Hen Hu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison 53706-1691, WI, USA

Received 9 January 2002; Revised 13 October 2002

Abstract

A novel sensor network source localization method based on acoustic energy measurements is presented. This method makes use of the characteristics that the acoustic energy decays inversely with respect to the square of distance from the source. By comparing energy readings measured at surrounding acoustic sensors, the source location during that time interval can be accurately estimated as the intersection of multiple hyperspheres. Theoretical bounds on the number of sensors required to yield unique solution are derived. Extensive simulations have been conducted to characterize the performance of this method under various parameter perturbations and noise conditions. Potential advantages of this approach include low intersensor communication requirement, robustness with respect to parameter perturbations and measurement noise, and low-complexity implementation.