UWB-based sensor networks for localization in mining environments

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have attached a great attention in the last few years. WSN offer several advantages over the traditional sensor networks, such as elimination of costly wires, security and larger area coverage. In the last few years, there has been great interest commercial applications based on Ultra Wideband (UWB). It has potentially low complexity, low cost and an excellent time domain resolution which facilitates location and tracking applications. Therefore, UWB provide a good combination of high performance with low complexity for WSN applications. Localization has attracted considerable attention in many fields. Accurate estimation of an individual location can be a difficult task, producing ambiguous results particularly in harsh environment. In this paper, we focus on feasibility study (via simulation and measurements) of using UWB based-WNS as future solution for localization in underground mines.