Patent ID: 7372773

Claim:
A method of computing a location of a first target in a sensor network, said method comprising: defining a first network cluster with a first plurality of bearing measuring sensors; operatively coupling said first network cluster to a first gateway; defining a second network cluster with a second plurality of bearing measuring sensors; operatively coupling said second network cluster to a second gateway; operatively coupling said first and said second gateway to a central command node; computing a first set of pre-computed numbers from said first plurality of measuring sensors and a second set of pre-computed numbers from said second plurality of measuring sensors, said first and second set of pre-computed numbers computed in part based on the following equations: x =[(Σ w+Σa 2 )(Σ b −Σαβ)+(Σα−Σ a )(Σ ab −Σβ)]/ D y =[(Σ v +Σα 2 )(Σ ab −Σβ)+(Σα−Σ a )(Σ b +Σαβ)]/ D where D =(Σ v +Σα 2 )(Σ w+Σa 2 )+Σα−Σ a and Σ a=a 1 /v 1 +a 2 /v 2 + . . . +a m /v m Σ b=b 1 /v 1 +b 2 /v 2 + . . . +b m /v m Σ a 2 =a 1 2 /v 1 +a 2 2 /v 2 + . . . +a m 2 /v m Σ ab=a 1 b 1 /v 1 +a 2 b 2 /v 2 + . . . +a m b m /v m Σ v =1 /v 1 +1 /v 2 + . . . +1 /v m Σα=α 1 /w 1 +α 2 /w 2 + . . . +α n /w n Σβ=β 1 /w 1 +β 2 /w 2 + . . . +β n /w n Σα 2 =α 1 2 /w 1 +α 2 2 /w 2 + . . . +α n 2 /w n Σαβ=α 1 β 1 /w 1 +α 2 β 2 /w 2 + . . . +α n β n /w n Σ w =1 /w 1 +1 /w 2 + . . . +1 /w n transmitting said first set of pre-computed numbers representative of information needed for global target location estimation of said first target from said first gateway to said central command node; transmitting said second set of pre-computed numbers representative of information needed for global target location estimation of the first target from said second gateway to said central command node; and estimating said location of said first target by said central command node based in part on said first and said second set of pre-computed numbers.