Natural Hazards (2019) 95:569–583

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3503-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Study on RSS/AOA hybrid localization in life detection

in huge disaster situation

ShiYang Tang1,3 · XueMing Shu1 · Jun Hu1 · Rui Zhou1 · ShiFei Shen1 · SiYang Cao2

Received: 5 January 2018 / Accepted: 1 October 2018 / Published online: 24 October 2018
© Springer Nature B.V. 2018

Abstract
Rescue is a tough and time-consuming task in huge disaster. After stricken by a cata-
strophic natural disaster, the rescue force is typically deployed under the circumstance of
traffic paralysis and lack of supplies. To cope with this situation, plenty of human resource
and professional equipment are required. However, both the human resource and equip-
ment are insufficient in most situations. The rescue force needs an efficient technology for
searching the survivals, such as the life detection, which can be a key factor in disaster
relief. Fast and accurate locating of the survivals will guide the limited rescue resource to
save more survivors. However, current life detection technology cannot meet the demand
of rescue in huge disaster. A novel life detection system based on fake base station is pro-
posed. The detection system can scan the whole disaster area and find the cell phones,
which leads to the surviving owners. As the system works in different way with other tradi-
tional human localization technology, a novel RSS/AOA hybrid positioning algorithm was
proposed in this paper to increase the accuracy of localization. To verify the accuracy, two
simulation tests were designed. The result of the two tests illustrates that the novel algo-
rithm is more suitable to work with the novel life detection system.

Keywords Life detection · AOA · RSS · Disaster relief

1 Introduction

Huge disaster like great earthquake or hurricane often breaks infrastructure. As a result,
traffic paralysis and lack of electricity power will be the biggest obstacle for rescue work.
Only several heavy machines are able to be shipped to the disaster area to cope with broken
walls and bricks from collapsed buildings. The life detection becomes a key factor of the
efficiency. If survivors could be detected and located fast and accurate, rescue team can
work more effectively and save more survivors.

* XueMing Shu
shuxm@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
1
Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
3
Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing, China

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Traditional life detection technology includes optical life detection system, acoustic
life detection system, infrared life detection system and radar life detection system (Hu
2012). These technologies have developed for a long time. Ahmed et al. (2008) proposed
an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based optical object detection system for disaster relief.
Despite the optical system can search a very wide area on the UAV, it cannot look into
the construction. Buried survivors cannot be found by this system. Aoyama et al. (2005)
designed a small hopping robot with infrared sensor to search survivors in collapsed build-
ing. The size of the robot is under 40 mm × 40 mm × 40 mm, which makes it easy to access
to the small opening of rubble pile. It is huge workload to transport enough small robot to
cover wide disaster area. Friedman et al. (2015) proposed an acoustic detection system.
In this system, acoustic data and GPS information are collected by smartphone, and then
transferred to central computer via router. Central computer analyzes sound data and finds
the survivors’ location according to the GPS information and sound analysis result. One of
the preconditions of this system is that survivors are conscious and able to shout. However,
many survivors cannot meet the condition.
Life detection radar is one of the best rescue equipment for severe disaster. It is able to
detect physiological signal from a dozens of meters away As long as the victim is alive, he
or she must have respiration and heartbeat. The radar can detect these signals from outside
the ruins. It transmits the electromagnetic wave, which is reflected by objects include sur-
vivors. By analyzing the reflect signal, the radar can find the location of survivors. İsmail
et al. (2015) designed a micro-doppler radar system in the frequency of 450 MHz and
1150 MHz. Chen et al. (2016) designed a Wi-Fi radar for life detection and also recognize
person by doppler shift. Yang Zhang et al. create a dual-frequency continuous-wave radar
system. They use a 5.75 GHz radar and a 35 GHz radar to suppress the interference (Zhang
et al. 2014). Ultra-wideband is another hot spot of research on life detection radar. Many
signal processing methods are proposed to improve the performance of UWB radar in life
detection (Xu et al. 2012; Li et al. 2013; Wang et al. 2016).
Despite the high price, life detection radar is the most effective and concerned technol-
ogy for survivors detection in rescue. However, the detection range of life detection radar is
limited. It is insufficient in severe disaster. The disaster area can be so wide that it is impos-
sible to deploy sufficient life detection radars to scan the whole area.
Electromagnetic wave device has its minimum detectable signal strength. The signal
strength of life detection radar is subject to three degrades. (1) signal transmit from radar
to target (2) signal reflect from object (3) signal travel back from object to radar. If EM
wave signal could be generated from survivors, the received signal strength will be much
stronger, i.e., the detectable range will be wider.
Mobile phone actually generates EM wave. As most people live with mobile phone all
the time, we can assume they will be with cell phone when trapped under building. If we
can make the cell phone transmit signal after disaster, the cell phone could become a bea-
con to find survivors.
In general, current smart phone include several different wireless modules. Wi-Fi, Blue-
tooth or other wireless communication methods could be used for localization. Due to the
communication range of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, they were more likely to be used in indoor
positioning (Hernández et al. 2014; Wang et al. 2015). It is difficult to detect Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth signal from hundreds meters away. Moreover, some subscribers are still using
the old version cell phone which does not support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Even those who
carry smart phones may not turn on the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth module all the time.
The mobile communication system is an ideal solution for cell phone detection in disas-
ter relief. The mobile communication system is activated all the time to allow other people

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to call the cell phone. After a severe disaster, when the electricity power is down, base sta-
tions from mobile service provider also cannot work. In this paper, we propose the rescue
team to run a fake base station themselves to make connection with cell phones in disaster
area. For this purpose, a cell phone detection system for disaster relief was designed (Tang
et al. 2017). The system acts as a portable base station. Allow cell phone to register in if
there is no base station signal from mobile service provider. Thus, the portable base station
can force cell phone to transmit signal by making a call or texting.
As the latest common mobile system, long-term evolution (LTE) has several positioning
schemes. It includes GPS, assisted global positioning system (AGPS), cell ID, enhanced
cell ID, observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) and uplink time difference of arrival
(UTDOA; Cherian and Rudrapatna 2013). It is not easy to get high accuracy localization
without GPS support. Moreover, some high accuracy schemes such as OTDOA or UTDOA
require multiple base stations work at the same time. The height of portable system is far
lower than the base station from service provider, and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) will affect
more in portable system. These schemes are too hard to apply in emergency situation. To
adopt the disaster situation, the device should be able to work independently, and get cell
phones’ location fast and accurate. Current positioning algorithm is not suitable for cell
phone detection system for emergency situation. To cope with this issue, a novel receive
signal strength and angle of arrival (RSS/AOA) hybrid localization algorithm are proposed
in this paper.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The portable cell phone detection system
is described in Section 2. Section 3 describes the searching scheme and novel localization
algorithm. Section 4 is two simulation of the localization algorithm. Section 5 presents the
results and discussion. Section VI is conclusion.

2 Portable cell phone detection system

The portable cell phone detection system is built to have part of the functions as other base
station from mobile service provider. It is unnecessary for the detection system to com-
municate with others all over the world, since the standard mobile communication system
includes large amount of information processing and transmission module, which is redun-
dant for the portable device. In fact, only a few functions are required to get the location of
cell phones. The system should be able to allow cell phones to register in and make a fake
call to cell phones to force them transmitting signal continuously.
For the application in rescue actions, portable cell phone detection system should be
small, light and easy to operate. An open software OpenBTS was applied in this system.
OpenBTS is an open source project based on software-defined radio (SDR) technology. A
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile network can be constructed by
OpenBTS using SDR platform with extension hardwares. The size and weight should be
capable for carrying and operating by one person alone.
The proposed portable cell phone detection system can build a GSM mobile network.
GSM is one of the most popular mobile communication protocol widely accepted over
the world. Many countries still keep GSM system working though new protocol has been
developed. When the proposed portable cell phone detector change the network param-
eters as same as the standard GSM network, cell phones can register automatically. Several
similar systems have been proposed before. Vasudeva et al. (2014) proposed a cell phone
positioning system for indoor localization. But, it is not capable for disaster situation as the

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Fig. 1  Hardware schematic diagram of portable cell phone detector

Fig. 2  Picture of real device

method costs too much time in a small area. Hatorangan and Juhana (2015) proposed a cell
phone localization system to find mobile phones nearby and get positioning by GPS data.
However, its maximum power of transmission is 200 mW, and the detection range are too
small for severe disaster. Huang designed a system to get the cell phone location by radio
resource location protocol (RRLP; Hunag et al. 2015). The device requires cell phone to
broadcast the location data by itself. Therefore, the cell phone has to get its own location
information before transmitting it to the rescue system. If the positioning function turned
off by user, it is difficult to activate it by the subscriber after disaster.

2.1 System design

The hardware schematic diagram of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 1. Figure 2 is the
real device with sector antenna.
As shown above, OpenBTS software and localization algorithm is operated by a lap-
top computer. Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) generate the signal using its
FPGA and transmit signal after power up by the power amplifier (PA), and received signal
is amplified by the low-noise Amplifier (LNA). Duplexer is connected with LNA, PA and
antenna to decrease the interference between uplink signal and downlink signal. The PC
gets its location data from a GPS module. Power system supplies power to USRP, PA and
LNA. Laptop works with its integrated battery.
USRP, LNA, PA and duplexer were integrated in an aluminum box. The battery and anten-
nal are changeable. The total size and weight of the detection system are small enough for one

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people to carry and deploy. As the antenna is easy to change, the proposed system can trans-
mit signal by different pattern, which enable the device to cope with different situations.

3 Searching scheme and localization algorithm

The maximum transmission power of the proposed portable cell phone detection system is
20 W. According our test in open area with sector antenna, a cell phone at 1.1 km away from
the system is able to be detected by the OpenBTS network and manually register by cell phone
user. By turning the sector antenna on the platform, user can scan over a wide area (Tang et al.
2017).
When the portable device makes a call to a cell phone, several parameters can be used
for locating the cell phone. These parameters include International Mobile Subscriber Iden-
tity (IMSI), Mobile Station Power (MSP), Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), antenna
direction, time advance and GPS data of portable device. Making the full usage of the RSSI
and AOA data will be able to decrease the localization error.
Latest RSSI/AOA hybrid algorithm for target localization often work with wireless sen-
sor networks (WSN; Tomic et al. 2015; Cheng et al. 2015) or multiple signal receiver (Gaz-
zah et al. 2015; Jiang et al. 2012). They are offering universal localization algorithm, not for
special situation as severe disaster. Improvement of algorithm is studied to adapt high NLOS
effect scenario as below.

3.1 Localization algorithm

According to previous test (Jiang et al. 2012), AOA could be obtained by the differences of
RSSI. AOA localization algorithm is the base of the proposed algorithm. As shown in Fig. 3,
AOA localization algorithm for two signal receivers can be calculated:
{ ( )
y = x tan 𝜑1 + (y1 − x1 tan 𝜑1 )
y = x tan 𝜑2 + y2 − x2 tan 𝜑2

( )
y1 − x1 tan 𝜑1 − y2 + x2 tan 𝜑2
x=− ( )
tan 𝜑1 − tan 𝜑2

Fig. 3  AOA localization algo-

rithm

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(( ( )) ( ( )))
tan 𝜑1 y2 − x2 tan 𝜑2 − tan 𝜑2 y1 − x1 tan 𝜑1
y= ( )
tan 𝜑1 − tan 𝜑2

In the equation above, x and y represent target coordinate. x1, y1, x2, y2, represent coordinate
of two signal receiver. φ1, φ2 is the angle of signal coming from.
Theoretically, AOA algorithm leads to the location of target cell phone in disaster situation.
However, in large area distance localization, a small error in the angle of signal would lead a
large error in target location. In addition, as the height of portable system is low and building
density is high in city, the proposed system may suffer more interference from NLOS than
localization by the common base station.
Based on the problem mentioned above, a novel optimization method is proposed in this
paper. Collect RSSI data with sector antenna in N points:
( )
RSSi,max = MAX RSSi (𝜑)
( )
𝜃i,max = 𝜃 RSSi,max
( )
yi − xi tan 𝜃i,max − yj + xj tan 𝜃j
xi,j = − ( )
tan 𝜃i,max − tan 𝜃j,max

(( ( )) ( ( )))
tan 𝜃i,max yj − xj tan 𝜃j,max − tan 𝜃j,max yi − xi tan 𝜃i,max
yi,j = ( )
tan 𝜃i,max − tan 𝜃j,max

or
( )( ) ( ) ( )
tan 𝜃i,max −1 xi,j yi − xi tan 𝜃i,max 0
+ =
tan 𝜃j,max −1 yi,j yj − xj tan 𝜃j,max 0

( ) ( )−1 ( )
xi,j tan 𝜃i,max −1 yi − xi tan 𝜃i,max
=−
yi,j tan 𝜃j,max −1 yj − xj tan 𝜃j,max

∑N ∑N � �g � �g
x RSSi,max − RSSmin RSSj,max − RSSmin
i=1 j = 1 i,j
i≠j
xt = ∑N ∑N � �g � �g
i=1
RSSi,max − RSSmin RSSj,max − RSSmin
j=1
i≠j

∑N ∑N � �g � �g
y RSSi,max − RSSmin RSSj,max − RSSmin
i=1 j = 1 i,j
i≠j
yt = ∑N ∑N � �g � �g
i=1
RSSi,max − RSSmin RSSj,max − RSSmin
j=1
i≠j
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In the equations, ­RSSi(φ) is the function of RSS change about the antenna angle on
receive point i. ­RSSi,max is the max rate of R­ SSi(φ). θi,max represent the angle of sector
antenna when ­RSSi(φ) reach its max rate. xi,j, yi,j are the location calculated by the AOA
algorithm based on the data of point i and point j. xt and yt represent the optimized location
of cell phone.
In order to change the effect of NLOS effect from buildings to the advantage in algo-
rithm, a higher reliability was given to the high RSS point. As a result, localization result
from these points would get higher weight in algorithm. And a coefficient g was given to
enhance/weaken the advantage of high RSS receiver point according to different situation.

4 Experiment

Since this test requires variety of permission, a wide range test field without cell phone
signal form mobile service provider, and some collapsed building. We implemented the
test with simulation instead of field test. There are two simulation tests for this algorithm.
The first one is a conceptual simulation in virtual situation. In second test, a 3D simulation
environment is created based on real map.

4.1 Conceptual test

A simulation software EEM-RTM is applied in this test. EEM-RTM will calculate the
power loss of EM wave in transmission. RSS will be the output of the software. Data pro-
cessing is done by MATLAB. Since EEM-RTM work with ray tracing theory, some main
parameters are set as follows: (1) Frequency of EM wave is 900 MHz; (2) maximum reflec-
tion time is 1; (3) maximum diffraction time is 2.
As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, four apartment houses are on the ground. Figure 5 with the
coordinates. The size of apartment is 65 m in length, 11 m in width and 18 m in height.
Coordinates of left button corner of apartment are (0,0), (0,43), (83.0), (83,43), respec-
tively. Thirty-six signal receiver points are placed around the apartment area. The adjacent
receivers are separated by 10°, and the coordinate of the center point of circle is (7,7.27).
The receive antenna is a directional antenna. As shown in Fig. 6, both the horizontal and
vertical main lobes are 60°.

Fig. 4  3D model of test scene

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Fig. 5  Planform of test scene

Fig. 6  3D directivity diagram of

antenna

Table 1  Coordinates of four Number x y Z

points
P1 32.5 11.0001 1
P2 32.5 42.9999 16
P3 77.5 27 1
P4 118.5 27 1

Four independent points are chosen to emit signal. P1 indicated the signal transmit from
inside building; P2 indicate the signal from higher floor in the building; P3 represent the
signal from crossroad near the center of four buildings; P4 is the point between two build-
ing. Four coordinates are shown in Table 1.
Signal will be transmitted from these points with omni-directional antenna and 1 W
power. Thirty-six receivers get one RSS data by rotating antenna for 10° each time. In total,
each receiver rotates 360° and obtains 36 times of RSS data.

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Table 2  Error table (g = 1) Mean LS Hybrid

Scene 1 21.95529 20.99992 22.37280

Scene 2 10.24845 4.110929 15.33591
Scene 3 4.357565 2 3.792607
Scene 4 19.95971 22.40089 29.86248

Fig. 7  Error change with g

4.2 Data analysis

These data are processed as following steps:

(1) Get RSS data from 36 signal receive points;

(2) For all 36 signal receive points in four scene, get the antenna direction of largest RSS;
(3) Calculate estimate localization points by typical AOA algorithm with every two receive
points;
(4) Exclude some obvious out-of-range estimation point;
(5) In four scenarios, get each mean value of rest points and calculate error;
(6) In four scenarios, optimize the estimate point by least square method and calculate
error;
(7) In four scenarios, optimize the estimation by RSS/AOA hybrid algorithm, tune factor
g and calculate the change of error.

Error of four scenes with different algorithms is shown as below:

The data of hybrid algorithm in Table 2 are the data when g = 1. When factor g = 1, the
accuracy of Hybrid algorithm is far worse than other algorithm. But, by changing the g, the
accuracy changes dramatically. When g shift from 1 to 80, the error is as Figs. 7, 8.
To find the best value of g, extract max error of every g in four scene, then find the tune
factor which corresponding the minimum error.
As shown above, when g = 24, the error in four scene are all less than 3.0792. The accu-
racy is much better than other algorithm. As all four point have outstanding feature in the

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Fig. 8  Max error in four scenes along with change of g

scene model, it could be speculated that most point in the map can get good positioning
accuracy by g = 24.

4.3 Real map simulation

Since the simulations above are just a conceptual test. A more practical simulation is pro-
ceeded. This practical simulation aims at running a simulation with the 3D environment
created from real map and use real parameter from sector antenna. We assume the rescue
team will deploy the cell phone detection system in a van, which can move and detect cell
phone in the main road.
As shown in Fig. 9, the simulation area is a typical residential district in Beijing. The
whole district is surrounded by fence. In the simulation, we assume the detection system
will not enter in the district for saving times. We deploying the detection system in simula-
tion outside the district, and on the cross-point of interval of buildings and main road.
Due to the limitation of simulation software, only eight buildings are deployed in simu-
lation map. Observer point is on the main road of the outside resident district. As shown
in Figs. 10 and 11, 20 green receiver point are deployed outside the resident district and
four transmit points are in the area. The coordinate of four transmit points are as follows
(Table 3).
The cell phone detector work with sector antenna in this situation. The simulation direc-
tivity of antenna was changed as the real antenna parameter. Sector antenna is shown in
Fig. 12 and its directivity are as follows.
Experiment procedure is similar with conceptual test. Consider the sensitivity of cell
phone detection device, we acquire a RSS data by turning sector antenna every 30°. Only
12 RSS data are acquired in every receiver point. So, in this experiment, the data for calcu-
lation are much less than conceptual test.
Result of the experiment is as follows (Table 4).
By changing the g from 1 to 80, error changes as shown in Fig. 13.

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Fig. 9  Simulation area satellite

map

Fig. 10  3D model of practical

simulation

All the accuracy of every point are worse than conceptual test. Several supposi-
tional reasons are listed as follows: (1) Test scene are much more complex than first test
and the placement of receive points are also not organized; (2) on second test, signal
strength data are captured by every turning 30°, so the accuracy of angle of arrival are
rougher than first test; (3) the scale of test site are bigger than first test, some receiver

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Fig. 11  Planform of practical simulation

Table 3  Coordinates of four Num X Y Z

points in practical simulation
P1 4.1 112 8.4
P2 − 22.6 90.5 0
P3 − 25.3 191.3 11.2
P4 60.1 153.5 16.8

Fig. 12  3D directivity diagram of

sector antenna

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Table 4  Error table of practical Mean LS Hybrid

experiment (g = 1)
Scene 1 8.8656 8.8617 51.52965
Scene 2 27.0754 27.0845 66.15732
Scene 3 23.2168 23.2019 46.24264
Scene 4 35.3703 35.3692 47.93859

Fig. 13  Error change with g in practical simulation

point cannot get valid signal from transmitter point in second scene; (4) receive antenna
is designed as real antenna. It may also affect the accuracy.

5 Discussion

The hybrid algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy of localization in most of the
scenarios if the g is appropriate. Different place in every scene has only one optimal g.
According to the two simulations, when g varies from 1 to 15, we can always get enough
precision for rescue. For the practical method, the procedure of disaster relief should be:

(1) After a huge disaster occur, rescue team start to searching survivors in city area;
(2) 3–5 members make up one rescue team and work with portable cell phone detection
system in a van;
(3) One or several team setup portable cell phone detection system and search around in
disaster area. Collect IMSI, RSSI and antenna direction data;
(4) When some cell phone register in the OpenBTS network, try to call cell phone to
make it ringing, if rescue team can hear the ring of cell phone, then search the cell
phone by the ring sound;
(5) All collected data should be gathered in one computer;
(6) Initialize g-map with the previous rescue data;

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(7) If there are enough RSSI data and antenna direction data for one cell phone, extract
appropriate g from g-map, start RSSI/AOA fusion localization algorithm to get the
location of this cell phone;
(8) Rescue commander send one rescue member (or a UAV) to search estimated area and
let the cell phones ringing, find cell phone by the sound of cell phone;
(9) When a cell phone is found, update g-map by the data from exact location of cell
phone;
(10) If the cell phone from dispatched rescue member (or UAV) also joined the OpenBTS
network, update g-map from its RSS and GPS data.

For the city area just suffered from a huge disaster, all movable people have already
evacuated from this area. Meanwhile, electricity power is shut down, and the whole area is
very quiet. The sound of cell phone would spread with less noise, and it is easy for rescue
team to recognize the ring.

6 Conclusion

In this paper, a new method and algorithm for life detection after huge disaster are
proposed.
Based on the portable cell phone detection system, survivors could be detected via its
cell phones in disaster situation. To verify the performance of new algorithm, two simula-
tions are designed. In the conceptual simulation, a simple scene was chosen to test the
accuracy of hybrid algorithm. In practical test, a more close to reality situation was setup to
check the algorithm. In both the scenarios, hybrid algorithm shows its advantage in disaster
situation as long as the g variable is calibrated. In the discussion at last, the novel rescue
scheme will solve the issue of g by initialize g-map from previous rescue data and con-
tinuously updating g-map. This technology will make survivors detection become fast and
accurate, and rescue efficiency will be greatly promoted as well.

Acknowledgements Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71774094), National Key
R&D Program of China during the 13th 5-year Plan Period (2017YFC0806607) and National Science and
Technology Pillar Program during the 12th 5-year Plan Period (2015BAK12B03).

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