Received signal strength based least squares lateration algorithm for indoor localization

Following the success of accurate location estimation for outdoor environments, locating targets in indoor environments has become an important research area. Accurate location estimation of targets for indoor environments has the potential for the development of many different applications such as public safety, social networking, information and mapping services. However, the GPS (Global Positioning System) technology used for outdoor environments is not applicable to indoor environments, making accurate location estimation a challenging issue for indoor environments. In this paper, we propose a received signal strength based least squares lateration algorithm which uses the existing infrastructure. By employing redundancy in the number of access points and applying least squares approximations to the received signal strength values, the lateration algorithm increases the accuracy of location estimations. The usage of the existing infrastructure makes the proposed algorithm low cost when compared to other positioning algorithms which need very precise high cost components.