Robust Location Detection using Identifying Codes

Undergraduate Student: Chris Malladi

Graduate Student: Rachanee Ungrangsi

Advisor: Professor Ari Trachtenberg

Reference: Saikat Ray, Rachanee Ungrangsi, Francesco de Pellegrini, Ari Trachtenberg, and David Starobinski, ``Robust Location Detection  in Emergency Sensor Networks,''  in INFOCOM 2003

Rachanee Ungrangsi, "Location Detection In Emergency Sensor Networks Using Robust Identifying Codes," Master's Thesis, Boston University, Boston, 2003

Motivation:

Coordination is vital to emergency operations during natural, accidental, and man-made disasters.  A key component in such coordination is the ability to robustly detect the location of rescue personnel, victims, and building components.  With such information, future command control centers could visualize a disaster site and direct rescues around hazardous areas and towards exits, as needed.

Unfortunately, existing positioning systems are not able to provide the robust location detection needed in these emergency situations.  Beacon systems are not robust because they rely on a single transmitter for an area.  GPS is not a reliable system for indoor location detection.
           

“It does not matter that you are 5 or 10 feet away from the fire, but it is more important that you are in the same room where the fire is”