SAM LOST smart antennas-based movable localization system

Nowadays, wireless position location of multiple sources attracts considerable interest, not only for military, lawenforcement, and public safety applications, but also in the field of intelligent transportation systems and location-specific commercial services. In this paper, we present a complete, autonomous, and movable-on-demand localization system. It is based on the estimation of the direction of arrival of signals emitted by mobile sources, impinging on an array of sensors placed on board a mobile localization station, represented by any aerial or terrestrial vehicle. The system is especially tailored for wireless users unable to perform self-localization, and its most attractive characteristic is its inherent mobility, which allows a quick employment “on demand,” in emergency situations, where other localization infrastructures are not present or are unable to properly operate. Procedures of autolocalization and autoorientation of the localization station, based on a set of emitting sources in known location, are considered as well. The user to be located should only be equipped with a very simple radio transmitter, whose signal can be received and identified by the localization station. Alternatively, in more sophisticated scenarios, the user’s equipment can be a personal mobile phone, seamlessly connected with the localization station acting as a temporary base station. The performance of the overall system has been evaluated for a case of code division multiple access (CDMA)-based transceiver via computer simulations, showing that the achievable accuracy for locating the user position can fulfill the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E-911 standard requirements for emergency calls over reasonably wide coverage areas.