Energy Efficient Hidden Markov Model Based Target Tracking Mechanism in Wireless Sensor Networks

Problem statement: Target tracking is a challenging application in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) because it is computation-intensive and requires real-time location processing. This study proposes a practical target tracking system based on the Hidden Markov Model in a distributed signal processing framework. In this framework, wireless sensor nodes perform target detection and tracking, whereas target localization requires the collaborative signal processing between wireless sensor nodes for improving the location accuracy and robustness. Approach: For carrying out target tracking under the constraints imposed by the limited transmission capabilities of the wireless sensor nodes, the HMM model and the particle filter approach are adopted in single wireless sensor node due to their outstanding performance and light computational calculations. Furthermore, a progressive multi sensor localization algorithm is proposed in distributed wireless sensor network considering the tradeoff between the localization accuracy of the target and the resource constraints of sensor nodes. Results: Finally, a real world target tracking experiment had been illustrated for static and mobile targets. Here blind child is considered as the target to be tracked within the sensor network. Conclusion: Mathematical analysis and the real world results showed that the target tracking system based on a distributed WSN make efficient use of the communication resources and achieve accurate target tracking successfully.