Target localization in wireless sensor networks using online semi-supervised support vector regression

Machine learning has been successfully used for target localization in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to its accurate and robust estimation against highly nonlinear and noisy sensor measurement. For efficient and adaptive learning, this paper introduces online semi-supervised support vector regression (OSS-SVR). The first advantage of the proposed algorithm is that, based on semi-supervised learning framework, it can reduce the requirement on the amount of the labeled training data, maintaining accurate estimation. Second, with an extension to online learning, the proposed OSS-SVR automatically tracks changes of the system to be learned, such as varied noise characteristics. We compare the proposed algorithm with semi-supervised manifold learning, an online Gaussian process and online semi-supervised colocalization. The algorithms are evaluated for estimating the unknown location of a mobile robot in a WSN. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more accurate under the smaller amount of labeled training data and is robust to varying noise. Moreover, the suggested algorithm performs fast computation, maintaining the best localization performance in comparison with the other methods.