Design of a 3D localization method for searching survivors after an earthquake based on WSN

Localization is one of key technologies in Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Various applications have been proposed based on it, e.g. location-aware services. Currently, there are many approaches to locate a person, e.g. based on GPS, RFID, ultrasonic signal etc based on various methods, e.g. TOA, TDOA, AOA, RSSI etc. However, when an earthquake happens, the localization devices in building may be damaged and how to quickly locate the survivors buried in the collapse regional is a key issue, which can save many lives. In the paper, we propose a new method to locate a 3D location of the survivors, i.e. also computing the depth of the buried survivors based on WSN. The method mainly consists of two stages. In the first stage, a draft location of the survivors is computed based on mobile base stations. And then the accurate location of the survivor, i.e. the 3D location, is calculated by an equilateral triangle device with a mobile beacon node.