Patent ID: 7952522

Claim:
A positioning apparatus for a wireless ad-hoc network, operable to locate a current relative position of the positioning apparatus and of a plurality of wireless electronic devices forming the wireless ad-hoc network, comprising: a distance measuring gathering device operable to measure and gather data, the data including distances between the positioning apparatus and the wireless electronic devices, respectively, and distances among the wireless electronic devices, wherein the distance measuring gathering device comprises a distance measurement device operable to measure the distances between the positioning apparatus and the wireless electronic devices, and a positioning device operable to calculate a current relative position of the positioning apparatus and the wireless electronic devices based on the distance data and a relative coordinate system, the positioning device comprising a basis finder device operable to calculate a basis and the relative coordinate system, wherein the basis comprises at least three base nodes, the base nodes comprise the positioning apparatus and at least two wireless electronic devices, the relative coordinate system is calculated based on positions of the base nodes, at least two base nodes are in a transmission range, the respective distances between base nodes being unequal to zero and the base nodes being orthogonally independent, and the basis finder device is operable to maintain the relative coordinate system when a base node is moved by determining a new position of the moved base node in reference to the maintained relative coordinate system.