CaliBree: A Self-calibration System for Mobile Sensor Networks

Abstract

We propose CaliBree, a self-calibration system for mobile wireless sensor networks. Sensors calibration is a fundamental problem in a sensor network. If sensor devices are not properly calibrated, their sensor readings are likely of little use to the application. Distributed calibration is challenging in a mobile sensor network, where sensor devices are carried by people or vehicles, mainly for three reasons: i)the sensing contact time, i.e., the amount of time nodes are within the sensing range of each other, can be very limited, requiring a quick and efficient calibration technique; ii)for scalability and ease of use, the calibration algorithm should not require manual intervention; iii)the computational burden must be low since some sensor platforms have limited capabilities. In this paper we propose CaliBree, a distributed, scalable, and lightweight calibration protocol that applies a discrete average consensus algorithm technique to calibrate sensor nodes. CaliBree is shown to be effective through experimental evaluation using embedded wireless sensor devices, achieving high calibration accuracy.