Range Based Wireless Sensor Node Localization Using Bat Algorithm

For most wireless sensor networks applications it is necessary to know the locations of all sensor nodes. Since sensor nodes are usually cheap, it is impossible to equip them all with GPS devices, hence the localization process depends on few static or mobile anchor nodes with GPS devices. Range based localization methods use estimated distance between sensor and anchor nodes where the quality of estimation usually depends on the distance and angle of arrival. Localization based on such noisy data represents a hard optimization problem for which swarm intelligence algorithms have been successfully used. In this paper we propose a range based localization algorithm that uses recently developed bat algorithm. The two stage localization algorithm uses four semi-mobile anchors that are at first located at the corners of the area where sensors are deployed and after that the anchors move to their optimal positions with minimal distances to sensor nodes, but with maximal viewing angles. Our proposed algorithm is even at the first stage superior to other approaches from literature in minimizing the error between real and estimated sensor node positions and it is additionally improved at the second stage.