This paper addresses the target localization problems based on received signal strength (RSS) measurements in underwater acoustic wireless sensor network (UWSN). Firstly, the problems based on the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion for estimating target localization in cases of both known and unknown transmit power are respectively derived, and fast implementation algorithms are proposed by transforming the non-convex problems into a generalized trust region subproblem (GTRS) frameworks. A three-step procedure is also provided to enhance the estimation accuracy in the unknown target transmit power case. Furthermore, the Cramer–Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) in both cases are derived. Computer simulation results show the superior performance of the proposed methods in the underwater environment.

This paper proposes a novel scheme to solve the target localization problem by using combined measurements of received signal strength (RSS) and angle-of-arrival (AOA) hybrid measurements in three-dimensional (3D) wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The proposed scheme can work effectively in both cases of known and unknown target transmit power. In the known transmit power case, by using polarized identity, we transform the available AOA measurements into a norm form and establish new relationships between the AOA measurements and the unknown target location, a novel target localization method is then proposed by using the second-order cone programming (SOCP) relaxation technique. Furthermore, we demonstrate that by using mean inequality, the proposed method can be effectively extended to the unknown transmit power case. In this case, we propose a practical alternating estimation procedure which alternatively estimates the target location and transmit power. Computer simulations are carried out to demonstrate that comparing with other methods, the proposed method can achieve significant performance gains for different settings in 3D WSNs.

A hybrid RSS/AOA indoor localization method based on error variance and measurement noise weighted least squares (ENWLS) is proposed. This method is based on three-dimensional wireless sensor networks, and achieves high-precision indoor positioning without increasing its complexity. We use the first-order Taylor approximation to approximate the linear weighted least square (WLS) error, and use the weighted least squares estimation to roughly estimate the location of the target, then determine the weight matrix by estimating the linear WLS error variance and the measured noise value on the sensor node. Simulation results show that our proposed method is better than other existing hybrid RSS/AOA localization methods.

In this paper, we consider the received signal strength-based cooperative localization problem in both known and unknown transmit power of target nodes. For the case of known transmit power, we treat the transmit power as a constant and derive a novel non-convex weighted least squares estimator which can be transformed into a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem for reaching an efficient solution. For the case of unknown transmit power, we treat the transmit power as an additional unknown parameter and propose a hybrid maximum likelihood-SOCP algorithm to alternatively estimate the target node locations and transmit power. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed methods in all considered settings.

The received signal strength (RSS) based target localization problem in underwater acoustic wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) is considered. Two cases with respect to target transmit power are considered. For the first case, under the assumption that the reference of the target transmit power is known, we derive a novel weighted least squares (WLS) estimator by using an approximation to the RSS expressions, and then transform the originally non-convex problem into a mixed semi-definite programming/second-order cone programming (SD/SOCP) problem for reaching an efficient solution. For the second case, there is no knowledge on the target transmit power, and we treat the reference power as an additional unknown parameter. In this case, we formulate a WLS estimator by using a further approximation, and present an iterative ML and mixed SD/SOCP algorithm for solving the derived WLS problem. For both cases, we also derive the closed form expressions of the Cramer–Rao Lower Bounds (CRLBs) on root mean square error (RMSE). Computer simulation results show the superior performance of the proposed methods over the existing ones in the underwater acoustic environment.

This paper addresses a target localization problem in 3-D wireless sensor networks using a hybrid system that fuses received signal strength and angle of arrival measurements. First, we formulate the received signal strength and angle of arrival measurement models as the pseudo-linear equations. Then, the bias is derived from the 3-D angle of arrival measurements that take the measurement noise into account to improve the localization performance. Furthermore, a non-convex estimator is derived based on the Least Squares criterion. Finally, semi-definite relaxation and second-order cone relaxation are applied to transform the derived non-convex estimator into a convex one. We propose a semi-definite relaxation and second-order cone relaxation-based estimator which yields the best performance under a large measurement noise or a small measurement noise. The generalization of the proposed method for known transmit power can also be applied to the case when transmit power is not know. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations corroborate the superior performance of the proposed localization methods over the existing ones.