# Toward Standardized Performance Evaluation of Flow-guided Nanoscale Localization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.07804 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07804/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Mar 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Insights from the Design Space Exploration of Flow-Guided Nanoscale Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18493/) (2023)
- [Graph Neural Networks as an Enabler of Terahertz-based Flow-guided Nanoscale Localization over Highly Erroneous Raw Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05551/) (2023)
- [Analytical Modelling of Raw Data for Flow-Guided In-body Nanoscale Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16034/) (2023)
- [Tailoring Graph Neural Network-based Flow-guided Localization to Individual Bloodstreams and Activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01239/) (2024)
- [Set Transformer Architectures and Synthetic Data Generation for Flow-Guided Nanoscale Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.16200/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Nanoscale devices with Terahertz (THz) communication capabilities are envisioned to be deployed within human bloodstreams. Such devices will enable fine-grained sensing-based applications for detecting early indications (i.e., biomarkers) of various health conditions, as well as actuation-based ones such as targeted drug delivery. Associating the locations of such events with the events themselves would provide an additional utility for precision diagnostics and treatment. This vision yielded a new class of in-body localization coined under the term "flow-guided nanoscale localization". Such localization can be piggybacked on THz communication for detecting body regions in which biological events were observed based on the duration of one circulation of a nanodevice in the bloodstream. From a decades-long research on objective benchmarking of "traditional" indoor localization, as well as its eventual standardization (e.g., ISO/IEC 18305:2016), we know that in early stages the reported performance results were often incomplete (e.g., targeting a subset of relevant performance metrics), carrying out benchmarking experiments in different evaluation environments and scenarios, and utilizing inconsistent performance indicators. To avoid such a "lock-in" in flow-guided localization, in this paper we propose a workflow for standardized performance evaluation of such localization. The workflow is implemented in the form of an open-source simulation framework that is able to jointly account for the mobility of the nanodevices, in-body THz communication between with on-body anchors, and energy-related and other technological constraints (e.g., pulse-based modulation) at the nanodevice level. Accounting for these constraints, the framework is able to generate the raw data that can be streamlined into different flow-guided localization solutions for generating standardized performance benchmarks.