Localization of acoustic beacons using iterative null beamforming over ad-hoc wireless sensor networks

In this paper an iterative method to localize and separate multiple audio beacons using the principles of null beam forming is proposed. In contrast to standard methods, the source separation is done optimally by putting a null on all the other sources while obtaining an estimate of a particular source. Also, this method is not constrained by fixed sensor geometry as is the case with general beamforming methods. The wireless sensor nodes can therefore be deployed in any random geometry as required. Experiments are performed to estimate the location and also the power spectral density of the separated sources. The experimental results indicate that the method can be used in ad-hoc, flexible and low-cost wireless sensor network deployment.