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Enabling reliable indoor localization can facilitate several new applications akin to how outdoor localization systems, such as GPS, have facilitated. Currently, a few key hurdles remain that prevent indoor localization from reaching the same stature. These hurdles include complicated deployment, tight time synchronization requirements from time difference of arrival protocols, and a lack of mechanism to allow a pan-building seamless solution. This work explores ways in which these key hurdles can be overcome to enable a more pervasive use of indoor localization. We propose a novel passive ranging scheme where clients overhear ongoing two-way ranging wireless communication between a few infrastructure nodes, and compute their own relative location without transmitting any signals (preserving user privacy). Our approach of performing two-way ranging between infrastructure nodes removes a crucial timing requirement in traditional time-difference-of-arrival methods thereby relaxing the synchronization requirements imposed by previous techniques. We use ultra-wideband wireless (UWB) radios that can easily penetrate building materials so that spanning an entire floor of a large building with just a few infrastructure nodes is possible. We build working prototypes, including the necessary hardware, and demonstrate the plug-and-play nature of our proposed solution. Our evaluation in three indoor spaces shows 1–2 meter-level localization accuracy with areas as large as 2241sq.m. We expect our explorations to re-trigger interest in novel applications for indoor spaces based on fine-grained indoor location knowledge.
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Low Cost Real Time Location Tracking with Ultra-Wideband
An emerging technology for indoor localization is ultra wide-band, also known as UWB. UWB has been making waves as a system that can be both secure and function as an “indoor GPS”. The proliferation of UWB is underway and soon it will be as ubiquitous as Bluetooth orWi-Fi.With this in mind, the benchmarking of the DWM3000EVB module in an Ultra Wideband Real Time Locating System is the goal of this research. The UWB RTLS created is a three anchor - one tag system that can calculate position just under 100 Hz and has an average accuracy of 5 centimeters.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2125362
- PAR ID:
- 10343337
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2022 17th Annual System of Systems Engineering Conference (SOSE)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 445 to 450
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/SOSE55472.2022.9812679
