An integral part of people-tracking systems is knowing a user’s location, which—depending on the application—may be inside or outside a building. Outside buildings, GPS is often used to determine the user’s location. Indoors, however, other technologies must be used, as GPS is generally not available in these environments.
The goal of the project is to develop a novel system for indoor positioning of people based on radio wave time-of-flight measurements. In collaboration with Solcon Systemtechnik GmbH, the aim is to implement a positioning system that will enable the reliable tracking of users inside buildings. Potential applications include locating personnel in warehouses, hospitals, or similar facilities, as well as helping visitors navigate large events (e.g., trade shows) or providing location-based information regarding participants in various sports. The system is designed to enable the rapid, reliable, and sufficiently accurate localization of people even under unfavorable conditions. Due to problems inherent in the technology—such as shadowing, reflection, and multipath propagation of electromagnetic waves—the use of radio technology alone is insufficient as the basis for highly accurate personal localization. A probabilistic algorithm is therefore being developed to fuse radio localization based on radio time-of-flight differences with step detection and orientation determination to a specific position.
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