Fingerprinting Localization Method Based on TOA and Particle Filtering for Mines

Accurate target localization technology plays a very important role in ensuring mine safety production and higher production efficiency. The localization accuracy of a mine localization system is influenced by many factors. The most significant factor is the non-line of sight (NLOS) propagation error of the localization signal between the access point (AP) and the target node (Tag). In order to improve positioning accuracy, the NLOS error must be suppressed by an optimization algorithm. However, the traditional optimization algorithms are complex and exhibit poor optimization performance. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new method for mine time of arrival (TOA) localization based on the idea of comprehensive optimization. The proposed method utilizes particle filtering to reduce the TOA data error, and the positioning results are further optimized with fingerprinting based on the Manhattan distance. This proposed method combines the advantages of particle filtering and fingerprinting localization. It reduces algorithm complexity and has better error suppression performance. The experimental results demonstrate that, as compared to the symmetric double-sided two-way ranging (SDS-TWR) method or received signal strength indication (RSSI) based fingerprinting method, the proposed method has a significantly improved localization performance, and the environment adaptability is enhanced

Investigation of Indoor Propagation Algorithms for Localization Purposes: Simulation and Measurements of Indoor Propagation Algorithms for Localization Applications using Wall Correction Factors, Local Mean Power Estimation and Ray Tracing Validations

The objective of this work is to enhance the awareness of the indoor propagation behaviour, by a set of investigations including simulations and measurements. These investigations include indoor propagation behaviour, local mean power estimation, proposing new indoor path loss model and introducing a case study on 60 GHz propagation in indoor environments using ray tracing and measurements. A summary of propagation mechanisms and manifestations in the indoor environment is presented. This comprises the indoor localization techniques using channel parameters in terms of angle of arrival (AOA), time of arrival (TOA) and received signal strength (RSS). Different models of path loss, shadowing and fast fading mechanisms are explored. The concept of MIMO channels is studied using many types of deterministic channel modelling such as Finite Difference Time Domain, Ray tracing and Dominant path model. A comprehensive study on estimating local average of the received signal strength (RSS) for indoor multipath propagation is conducted. The effect of the required number of the RSS data and their Euclidian distances between the neighbours samples are investigated over 1D, 2D and 3D configurations. It was found that the effect of fast fading was reduced sufficiently using 2D horizontal’s arrangement with larger spacing configuration. A modified indoor path loss prediction model is presented namely effective wall loss model (EWLM). The modified model with wall correction factors is compared to other indoor path loss prediction models using simulation data (for 2.4, 5, 28, 60 and 73.5 GHz) and real-time measurements (for 2.4 and 5 GHz). Different operating frequencies and antenna polarizations are considered to verify the observations. In the simulation part, EWLM shows the best performance among other models. Similar observations were recorded from the experimental results. Finally, a detailed study on indoor propagation environment at 60 GHz is conducted. The study is supported by Line of Sight (LoS) and Non-LoS measurements data. The results were compared to the simulated ones using Wireless-InSite ray tracing software. Several experiments have confirmed the reliability of the modelling process based on adjusted material properties values from measurements

Signal modelling based scalable hybrid Wi-Fi indoor positioning system

Location based services (LBS) such as advertising, navigation and social media require a mobile device to be aware of its location anywhere. Global Positioning System (GPS) is accurate outdoors. However, in case of indoor environments, GPS fails to provide a location due to non-line of sight. Even in cases where GPS does manage to get a position fix indoors, it is largely inaccurate due to interference of indoor environment. Wi-Fi based indoor positioning offers best solution indoors, due to wide usage of Wi-Fi for internet access. Wi-Fi based indoor positioning systems are widely based on two techniques, first Lateration which uses distances estimated based on signal properties such as RSS (Received Signal Strength) and second, Fingerprint matching of data collected in offline phase. The accuracy of estimated position using Lateration techniques is lower compared to fingerprinting techniques. However, Fingerprinting techniques require storing a large amount of data and are also computationally intensive. Another drawback of systems based on fingerprinting techniques is that they are not scalable. As the system is scaled up, the database required to be maintained for fingerprinting techniques increases significantly. Lateration techniques also have challenges with coordinate system used in a scaled-up system. This thesis proposes a new scalable positioning system which combines the two techniques and reduces the amount of data to be stored, but also provides accuracy close to fingerprinting techniques. Data collected during the offline/calibration phase is processed by dividing the test area into blocks and then stored for use during online/positioning phase. During positioning phase, processed data is used to identify the block first and then lateration techniques are used to refine the estimated location. The current system reduces the data to be stored by a factor of 20. And the 50th percentile accuracy with this novel system is 4.8m, while fingerprint system accuracy was 2.8m using same data. The significant reduction in database size and lower computational intensity benefits some of the applications like location-based search engines even with slightly lower performance in terms of accuracy