The Design and Implementation of a Self-calibrating Acoustic Sensing Platform

Lewis Girod, Vladimir Trifa, Vladimir Trifa, Deborah Estrin
4th ACM SenSys, Boulder, CO, November 2006

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Acoustic Embedded N etworked Sensing Box (ENSBox), a platform for prototyping rapid-deployable distr ibuted acoustic sensing systems, particularly distributed source localization. E ach ENSBox integrates an ARM processor running Linux and supports key facilities required for source localization: a sensor array, wireless network services, ti me synchronization, and precise self-calibration of array position and orientati on. The ENSBox’s integrated, high precision self-calibration facility sets it ap art from other platforms. This self-calibration is precise enough to support aco ustic source localization applications in complex, realistic environments: e.g., 5 cm average 2D position error and 1.5 degree average orientation error over a partially obstructed 80x50 m outdoor area. Further, our integration of array ori entation into the position estimation algorithm is a novel extension of traditio nal multilateration techniques. We present the result of several different test deployments, measuring the performance of the system in urban settings, as well as forested, hilly environments with obstructing foliage and 20–30 m distances b etween neighboring nodes.

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Bibtex Entry:

@inproceedings{girod2006design,
   author =       "Lewis Girod and Vladimir Trifa and Vladimir Trifa and Deborah Estrin",
   title =        "{The Design and
Implementation of a Self-calibrating Acoustic Sensing Platform}",
   booktitle =    {4th ACM SenSys},
   year =         {2006},
   month =        {November},
   address =      {Boulder, CO}
}