Recursive Bayesian Approaches for Auto Calibration in Drift Aware Wireless Sensor Networks

The purpose for wireless sensor networks is to deploy low cost sensors with sufficient computing and communication capabilities to support networked sensing applications. Even when the sensors are properly calibrated at the time of their deployment, they develop drift in their readings leading to biased sensor measurements. Noting that a physical phenomenon in a certain area follows some spatio-temporal correlation, we assume that the sensors readings in that area are correlated. We also assume that the instantiations of drifts are uncorrelated. Based on these assumptions, and inspired by the resemblance of registration problem in radar target tracking with the bias error problem in wireless sensor networks, we follow a Bayesian framework to solve the Drift/Bias problem in wireless sensor networks. We present two methods for solving the drift problem in a densely deployed sensor network, one for smooth drifts and the other for unsmooth drifts. We also show that both methods successfully detect and correct sensor errors and extend the effective life time of the sensor network.