Technologies and solutions for location-based services in smart cities: past, present, and future

Location-based services (LBS) in smart cities have drastically altered the way cities operate, giving a new dimension to the life of citizens. LBS rely on location of a device, where proximity estimation remains at its core. The applications of LBS range from social networking and marketing to vehicle-toeverything communications. In many of these applications, there is an increasing need and trend to learn the physical distance between nearby devices. This paper elaborates upon the current needs of proximity estimation in LBS and compares them against the available Localization and Proximity (LP) finding technologies (LP technologies in short). These technologies are compared for their accuracies and performance based on various different parameters, including latency, energy consumption, security, complexity, and throughput. Hereafter, a classification of these technologies, based on various different smart city applications, is presented. Finally, we discuss some emerging LP technologies that enable proximity estimation in LBS and present some future research areas

Low cost inertial-based localization system for a service robot

Dissertation presented at Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon to attain the Master degree in Electrical and Computer Science EngineeringThe knowledge of a robot’s location it’s fundamental for most part of service robots. The success of tasks such as mapping and planning depend on a good robot’s position knowledge. The main goal of this dissertation is to present a solution that provides a estimation of the robot’s location. This is, a tracking system that can run either inside buildings or outside them, not taking into account just structured environments. Therefore, the localization system takes into account only measurements relative. In the presented solution is used an AHRS device and digital encoders placed on wheels to make a estimation of robot’s position. It also relies on the use of Kalman Filter to integrate sensorial information and deal with estimate errors. The developed system was testes in real environments through its integration on real robot. The results revealed that is not possible to attain a good position estimation using only low-cost inertial sensors. Thus, is required the integration of more sensorial information, through absolute or relative measurements technologies, to provide a more accurate position estimation

New Approach of Indoor and Outdoor Localization Systems

Accurate determination of the mobile position constitutes the basis of many new applications. This book provides a detailed account of wireless systems for positioning, signal processing, radio localization techniques (Time Difference Of Arrival), performances evaluation, and localization applications. The first section is dedicated to Satellite systems for positioning like GPS, GNSS. The second section addresses the localization applications using the wireless sensor networks. Some techniques are introduced for localization systems, especially for indoor positioning, such as Ultra Wide Band (UWB), WIFI. The last section is dedicated to Coupled GPS and other sensors. Some results of simulations, implementation and tests are given to help readers grasp the presented techniques. This is an ideal book for students, PhD students, academics and engineers in the field of Communication, localization & Signal Processing, especially in indoor and outdoor localization domains

An overview of local positioning system: technologies, techniques and applications

Positioning system like global position system (GPS) and Local position system (LPS) have become very important in a large number of applications such as monitoring and tracking, etc. Because of the limitations of GPS in indoor environments due to the lack of line of sight (LoS), the use of LPS has become a true necessary to estimate user’s or object position with a good accuracy. In order to choose the best LPS system, a compromise between accuracy, precision, power consumption, coverage and cost should be taken into account. This paper introduces an overview of LPS performance parameters, current technologies, techniques and methods used by LPS. On the other hand, the comparison between LPS technologies and techniques used based on those technologies are also discussed. Furthermore, the LPS’s applications that have been done by previous researches such as human tracking, object tracking, animal tracking and automatic guide vehicle (AGV) tracking will be discussed. We believe this paper would catalyze further investigation by the researcher which is interested on the LPS field

Probabilistic Framework for the Positioning Of a Vehicle in a Combined Indoor-Outdoor Scenario

The development in technology has given us all sophistications but equal amounts of threats too. This has brought us an urge to bring a complete security system that monitors an object continuously. Consider a situation where a cargo vehicle carrying valuable material is moving in an area using GPS (an outdoor sensor) we can monitor it but the actual problem arises when its movement involves both indoor (with in the industry) and outdoor because GPS has its limitations in indoor environment. Hence it is essential to have an additional sensor that would enable us a continuous monitoring /tracking with out cutoff of the signal. In this paper we bring out a solution by combining Ultra wide band (UWB) with GPS sensory information which eliminates the limitations of conventional tracking methods in mixed scenario(indoor and outdoor) The same method finds application in mobile robots, monitoring a person on grounds of security, etc

Analysis of GPS and UWB positioning system for athlete tracking

In recent years, wearable performance monitoring systems have become increasingly popular in competitive sports. Wearable devices can provide vital information including distance covered, velocity, change of direction, and acceleration, which can be used to improve athlete performance and prevent injuries. Tracking technology that monitors the movement of an athlete is an important element of sport wearable devices. For tracking, the cheapest option is to use global positioning system (GPS) data however, their large margins of error are a major concern in many sports. Consequently, indoor positioning systems (IPS) have become popular in sports in recent years where the ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning sensor is now being used for tracking. IPS promises much higher accuracy, but unlike GPS, it requires a longer set-up time and its costs are significantly more. In this research, we investigate the suitability of the UWB-based localisation technique for wearable sports performance monitoring systems. We implemented a hardware set-up for both positioning sensors, UWB and the GPS-based (both 10 Hz and 1 Hz) localisation systems, and then monitored their accuracy in 2D and 3D side-by-side for the sport of tennis. Our gathered data shows a major drawback in the UWB-based localisation system. To address this major drawback we introduce an artificial intelligent model, which shows some promising results

Collaborative navigation as a solution for PNT applications in GNSS challenged environments: report on field trials of a joint FIG / IAG working group

PNT stands for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. Space-based PNT refers to the capabilities enabled by GNSS, and enhanced by Ground and Space-based Augmentation Systems (GBAS and SBAS), which provide position, velocity, and timing information to an unlimited number of users around the world, allowing every user to operate in the same reference system and timing standard. Such information has become increasingly critical to the security, safety, prosperity, and overall qualityof-life of many citizens. As a result, space-based PNT is now widely recognized as an essential element of the global information infrastructure. This paper discusses the importance of the availability and continuity of PNT information, whose application, scope and significance have exploded in the past 10–15 years. A paradigm shift in the navigation solution has been observed in recent years. It has been manifested by an evolution from traditional single sensor-based solutions, to multiple sensor-based solutions and ultimately to collaborative navigation and layered sensing, using non-traditional sensors and techniques – so called signals of opportunity. A joint working group under the auspices of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), entitled ‘Ubiquitous Positioning Systems’ investigated the use of Collaborative Positioning (CP) through several field trials over the past four years. In this paper, the concept of CP is discussed in detail and selected results of these experiments are presented. It is demonstrated here, that CP is a viable solution if a ‘network’ or ‘neighbourhood’ of users is to be positioned / navigated together, as it increases the accuracy, integrity, availability, and continuity of the PNT information for all users

Communication-based UAV Swarm Missions

Unmanned aerial vehicles have developed rapidly in recent years due to technological advances. UAV technology can be applied to a wide range of applications in surveillance, rescue, agriculture and transport. The problems that can exist in these areas can be mitigated by combining clusters of drones with several technologies. For example, when a swarm of drones is under attack, it may not be able to obtain the position feedback provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS). This poses a new challenge for the UAV swarm to fulfill a specific mission. This thesis intends to use as few sensors as possible on the UAVs and to design the smallest possible information transfer between the UAVs to maintain the shape of the UAV formation in flight and to follow a predetermined trajectory. This thesis presents Extended Kalman Filter methods to navigate autonomously in a GPS-denied environment. The UAV formation control and distributed communication methods are also discussed and given in detail