Software-Defined Metamaterials (SDMs) show a strong potential for advancing the engineered control of electromagnetic waves. As such, they are envisioned to enable a variety of exciting applications, among others in the domains of smart textiles, high-resolution structural monitoring, and sensing in challenging environments. Many of the applications envisage deformations of the SDM structure, such as its bending, stretching or rolling, which implies that the locations of metamaterial elements will be changing relative to one another. In this paper, we argue that if the metamaterial elements would be accurately localizable, this location information could potentially be utilized for enabling novel SDM applications, as well as for optimizing the control of the elements themselves. To enable their localization, we assume that these elements are controlled wirelessly through a Terahertz (THz)-operating nanonetwork. We consider the elements to be energy-constrained, with their sole powering option being to harvest environmental energy. By means of simulation, we demonstrate sub-millimeter accuracy of the two-way Time of Flight (ToF)-based localization, as well as high availability of the service (i.e., consistently more than 80% of the time), which is a result of the low energy consumed during localization. Finally, we qualitatively characterize the latency of the proposed localization service, as well as outline several challenges and future research directions.

中文翻译：

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太赫兹操作能量收集软件定义超材料的本地化

软件定义的超材料 (SDM) 在推进电磁波的工程控制方面显示出强大的潜力。因此，它们有望实现各种令人兴奋的应用，其中包括智能纺织品、高分辨率结构监测和挑战性环境中的传感等领域。许多应用设想了 SDM 结构的变形，例如其弯曲、拉伸或滚动，这意味着超材料元件的位置将相对于彼此发生变化。在本文中，我们认为，如果超材料元素可以准确定位，则该位置信息有可能用于实现新的 SDM 应用程序，以及优化对元素本身的控制。为了实现他们的本地化，我们假设这些元件是通过太赫兹 (THz) 操作的纳米网络无线控制的。我们认为这些元素是能量受限的，它们唯一的动力选择是收集环境能量。通过仿真，我们展示了基于飞行时间 (ToF) 的双向定位的亚毫米精度，以及服务的高可用性（即始终超过 80% 的时间），这是一个定位过程中能耗低的结果。最后，我们定性地描述了提议的本地化服务的延迟，并概述了几个挑战和未来的研究方向。通过仿真，我们展示了基于飞行时间 (ToF) 的双向定位的亚毫米精度，以及服务的高可用性（即始终超过 80% 的时间），这是一个定位过程中能耗低的结果。最后，我们定性地描述了提议的本地化服务的延迟，并概述了几个挑战和未来的研究方向。通过仿真，我们展示了基于飞行时间 (ToF) 的双向定位的亚毫米精度，以及服务的高可用性（即始终超过 80% 的时间），这是一个定位过程中能耗低的结果。最后，我们定性地描述了提议的本地化服务的延迟，并概述了几个挑战和未来的研究方向。