Optimal TDOA Sensor-Pair Placement With Uncertainty in Source Location

Source localization based on time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) measurements from spatially separated sensors is an important problem in sensor networks. In this paper, we study the optimal geometries of a team of networked sensors for the TDOA-based localization problem, taking into account the a priori uncertainty of the source location. Two types of TDOA sensor pairing methods, namely, centralized and decentralized , are considered. Analytic solutions to the optimal sensor geometries in the ideal case are derived in both static and movable source cases. In the movable source case, sensor geometry design is investigated under an extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework. Furthermore, under sensor motion and communication constraints, we extend this paper to an optimal sensor path planning problem. Simulations demonstrate its enhancement to the source localization and tracking performance.