A diffraction measurement model and particle filter tracking method for RSS-based DFL

Device-free localization (DFL) based on received signal strength (RSS) measurements functions by measuring RSS variation due to the presence of the target. The accuracy of a certain localization method closely depends on the accuracy of the measurement model itself. Existing models have been found not accurate enough under certain circumstances as they cannot explain some phenomena observed in DFL practices. In light of this, we propose a new model to characterize the RSS variation, which invokes diffraction theory and regards the target as a cylinder instead of a point mass. It is observed that the proposed model agrees well with experimental measurements, particularly when the target crosses the link or is in the vicinity of the link. Since the proposed measurement model is highly nonlinear, a particle filter-based tracking method is used to generate the approximate Bayesian estimate of the target position. As a performance benchmark, we have also derived the posterior Cramér-Rao lower bound of DFL for a diffraction model. A field test has shown that the proposed diffraction model may improve the tracking accuracy at least by 45% in a single-target case and by 27% in a double-target case.