Error estimation of iterative maximum likelihood localization in wireless sensor networks

Based on maximum likelihood localization an error estimation method is proposed to evaluate the localization performance under different conditions. The localization error would be accumulated and transferred during the process of iterative localization when the errors of located nodes are caused by ranging errors or anchor location errors. When the error estimation method is applied to the iterative localization, the simulations show more anchors, small noise and less iterative times would decrease the errors of located nodes. Since the anchor location errors are transformed to the equivalent ranging errors, the maximum likelihood localization approach with anchor position uncertainty is also put forward to improve the localization accuracy. The simulations also demonstrate the validity of our maximum likelihood localization approach when the anchor positions are uncertain.