Distributed cooperative target detection and localization in decentralized wireless sensor networks

In many network applications such as surveillance systems, it is crucial to detect the target and estimate its location. Distributed processing algorithms are capable of providing fast, secure, scalable and robust solutions. In this paper, we study the problem of target detection and localization in a wireless sensor network. Most of the current researches have focused on centralized algorithms and the works done on distributed algorithms usually need center assistance and practical issues such as communication link failure is not addressed in them. In this paper, we first propose a distributed consensus-based algorithm for target detection and then propose a distributed consensus-based localization algorithm. We assume that the target transmits a radio signal that is received in sensors equipped with limited computational and power resources. We consider the communication link failure and use the collaboration of sensor nodes to detect the presence of target. In the proposed target localization algorithm, sensor nodes estimate their distance toward the target using the received signal strength. In both the proposed algorithms, sensor nodes exchange information only with their neighbors and each makes an individual decision. We further prove the convergence of the proposed algorithms. Computer simulations confirm that the proposed algorithms are very fast and applicable in high-performance networks. We improve the localization accuracy at least by 25 % in terms of localization error compared with some recent algorithms.