Optimization of wireless locating in complex environments by placement of anchor nodes with evolutionary algorithms

Lateration based real time locating systems (RTLS) require anchor nodes with known positions to calculate the position of a mobile target. The geometry of the anchor nodes constrains the accuracy of the locating. In complex environments such as ships or factory floors, obstacles in the line of sight between target and anchors decrease the precision significantly. This is caused by the influence of multipathing effects and shadowing on distance measurements. In this work, we propose a heuristic approach to find reasonable geometries for anchor nodes in complex environments. We achieve this by simulation of anchor geometries and the employment of evolutionary algorithms to search for optimizations.