Distributed-Robust Source Localization in Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose a distributed-robust sound source localization (D-R-SSL) method in wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs). Specifically, the space is first divided into small equal-sized grids, and the local probability of each grid containing the source is calculated by using intra-node time difference of arrivals (TDoAs). Next, we allocate weights for local probabilities from different nodes, and develop a distributed weight calculation strategy which is robust against the TDoA outliers. Then, the source position is derived from the weighted summation of local probabilities. In order to improve the SSL efficiency, we further present a fast implementation approach (named as F-D-R-SSL). Finally, we also analyse the computational complexity and communication loads of the proposed methods. Simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate that the F-D-R-SSL is as powerful or even stronger than state-of-the-art non-grid SSLs.