Determining the position of sensor nodes of a sensor network

US10228446B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. · DE
• FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG · DE

Inventors

• Norbert Franke · Erlangen, DE
• Gerd Kilian · Erlangen, DE
• Christian Forster · Koblenzer Straße, DE
• Hans-Martin Tröger · Erlangen, DE
• Jörn Thielecke · Erlangen, DE
• Jörg Robert · Uttenreuth, DE
• Markus Hartmann · Sulzbach-Rosenberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 25, 2015
• Grant date: Mar 12, 2019
• Expiry date: Feb 20, 2036

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W88/02
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determining the position of a first sensor node relative to a second sensor node, wherein the first and the second sensor nodes are communicatively connected to each other and are a constituent part of a sensor network, comprising the method steps: reception of signal sections of transmitted signals from at least two transmitters by the first and the second sensor node, beginning at a time t1 for a time period tRX; determining the angle of incidence of the transmitted signals to at least one of the sensor nodes; determining the distance between the sensor nodes from the propagation time differences of the transmitted signals from the at least two transmitters received at the first and second sensor nodes; determining the position of the first sensor node relative to the second sensor node from the distance between the sensor nodes and the angle of incidence of the transmitted signals, wherein the sensor nodes determine the time t1 and the time period t1 in relation to a reference frequency which is derived from the received transmitted signal from at least one of the transmitters.