3D indoor positioning of UAVs with spread spectrum ultrasound and time-of-flight cameras

Este trabajo propone el uso de un sistema híbrido de posicionamiento acústico y óptico en interiores para el posicionamiento 3D preciso de los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAV). El módulo acústico de este sistema se basa en un esquema de Acceso Múltiple por División de Código de Tiempo (T-CDMA), en el que la emisión secuencial de cinco códigos ultrasónicos de espectro amplio se realiza para calcular la posición horizontal del vehículo siguiendo un procedimiento de multilateración 2D. El módulo óptico se basa en una cámara de Tiempo de Vuelo (TOF) que proporciona una estimación inicial de la altura del vehículo. A continuación se propone un algoritmo recursivo programado en un ordenador externo para refinar la posición estimada. Los resultados experimentales muestran que el sistema propuesto puede aumentar la precisión de un sistema exclusivamente acústico en un 70-80% en términos de error cuadrático medio de posicionamiento.This work proposes the use of a hybrid acoustic and optical indoor positioning system for the accurate 3D positioning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The acoustic module of this system is based on a Time-Code Division Multiple Access (T-CDMA) scheme, where the sequential emission of five spread spectrum ultrasonic codes is performed to compute the horizontal vehicle position following a 2D multilateration procedure. The optical module is based on a Time-Of-Flight (TOF) camera that provides an initial estimation for the vehicle height. A recursive algorithm programmed on an external computer is then proposed to refine the estimated position. Experimental results show that the proposed system can increase the accuracy of a solely acoustic system by 70–80% in terms of positioning mean square error.• Gobierno de España y Fondos para el Desarrollo Regional Europeo. Proyectos TARSIUS (TIN2015-71564-C4-4-R) (I+D+i), REPNIN (TEC2015-71426-REDT) y SOC-PLC (TEC2015-64835-C3-2-R) (I+D+i) • Junta de Extremadura, Fondos FEDER y Fondo Social Europeo. Proyecto GR15167 y beca predoctoral 45/2016 Exp. PD16030peerReviewe

A survey on acoustic positioning systems for location-based services

Positioning systems have become increasingly popular in the last decade for location-based services, such as navigation, and asset tracking and management. As opposed to outdoor positioning, where the global navigation satellite system became the standard technology, there is no consensus yet for indoor environments despite the availability of different technologies, such as radio frequency, magnetic field, visual light communications, or acoustics. Within these options, acoustics emerged as a promising alternative to obtain high-accuracy low-cost systems. Nevertheless, acoustic signals have to face very demanding propagation conditions, particularly in terms of multipath and Doppler effect. Therefore, even if many acoustic positioning systems have been proposed in the last decades, it remains an active and challenging topic. This article surveys the developed prototypes and commercial systems that have been presented since they first appeared around the 1980s to 2022. We classify these systems into different groups depending on the observable that they use to calculate the user position, such as the time-of-flight, the received signal strength, or the acoustic spectrum. Furthermore, we summarize the main properties of these systems in terms of accuracy, coverage area, and update rate, among others. Finally, we evaluate the limitations of these groups based on the link budget approach, which gives an overview of the system's coverage from parameters such as source and noise level, detection threshold, attenuation, and processing gain.Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónResearch Council of Norwa

LOCATE-US: Indoor Positioning for Mobile Devices Using Encoded Ultrasonic Signals, Inertial Sensors and Graph- Matching

Indoor positioning remains a challenge and, despite much research and development carried out in the last decade, there is still no standard as with the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) outdoors. This paper presents an indoor positioning system called LOCATE-US with adjustable granularity for use with commercial mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. LOCATE-US is privacy-oriented and allows every device to compute its own position by fusing ultrasonic, inertial sensor measurements and map information. Ultrasonic Local Positioning Systems (ULPS) based on encoded signals are placed in critical zones that require an accuracy below a few decimeters to correct the accumulated drift errors of the inertial measurements. These systems are well suited to work at room level as walls confine acoustic waves inside. To avoid audible artifacts, the U-LPS emission is set at 41.67 kHz, and an ultrasonic acquisition module with reduced dimensions is attached to the mobile device through the USB port to capture signals. Processing in the mobile device involves an improved Time Differences of Arrival (TDOA) estimation that is fused with the measurements from an external inertial sensor to obtain real-time location and trajectory display at a 10 Hz rate. Graph-matching has also been included, considering available prior knowledge about the navigation scenario. This kind of device is an adequate platform for Location-Based Services (LBS), enabling applications such as augmented reality, guiding applications, or people monitoring and assistance. The system architecture can easily incorporate new sensors in the future, such as UWB, RFiD or others.Universidad de AlcaláJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaAgencia Estatal de Investigació

Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression

Multiple Antenna-based GPS Multipath Mitigation using Code Carrier Information

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 전기공학부, 2013. 8. 최진영.여러 응용분야에서 수 억대의 GPS(Global Positioning System) 수신기가 사용되고 있지만, GPS을 기반으로 하는 위치기반 서비스(LBS: Location Based Services)에서는 여전히 다중경로 오차와 같은 전파 방해가 발생하고 있으며, 이러한 오차들로 인하여 상관함수의 왜곡은 거리 오차가 발생에 영향을 미치고 있다. 이러한 이유로 인하여 GPS을 이용한 항법 시스템에서의 위치 정확도 향상을 위하여, 다중경로 오차를 효과 적으로 줄이기 위한 강인하고 현실적인 방법이 요구된다. 다중경로는 GPS 신호가 장애물에 의해 반사나 회절 되어 수신기에 도착할 때 잘 일어난다. 가시경로 신호에 결합된 다중경로 신호는 GPS 수신기의 상관함수의 변형을 일으키며 궁극적으로 차별함수에 영향을 미치므로 거리오차를 발생시킨다. 그러므로 다중경로 오차는 위성항법 시스템에서의 위치정확도 향상을 위해 해결 되어야 될 문제로 쟁점이 되어왔다. 최근에는 이러한 전파 간섭신호를 줄이기 위하여 다중개의 안테나(Multiple Antenna)를 이용하는 방법이 GPS 항법 시스템에서 이용되고 있다. 현 시점에서, 다중개의 안테나를 사용하는 응용분야는 주로 학술적인 연구 및 복잡한 군사용 연구로 주로 진행 되었다. 그러나 안테나 제작 방법 및 전기적 시스템의 급격한 발전으로 인해 이전의 하드웨어 및 소프웨어적인 문제를 쉽게 해결 됨에 따라 가까운 미래에는 다중 안테나 기반의 수신기가 민간 상용분야로 확대 될 것으로 예상이 된다. 또한 안테나 수신기 RF단의 소형화로 인하여 다중 안테나 시스템에서의 안테나 크기 문제점 또한 해결 가능하다. 그러므로 본 논문에서는 다중 GPS 안테나를 이용하여 GPS 항법에서의 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차 감쇄에 대한 연구를 목적으로 한다. 본 연구는 강한 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 신호에 대하여 공간 처리 기법을 적용한다. 제안된 새로운 방법은 다중 안테나를 기반의 코드 케리어 정보를 이용한 공간처리 기법으로 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차를 완화시키며, 또한 빔형성 기법을 이용하여 신호 대 잡음 비율을 최대로 한다. 제안된 성능을 검증하기 위하여 소프트웨어 GPS 수신기를 사용된다. 소프트웨어 GPS 수신기를 이용한 신호처리 기법은 새로운 장비의 제품화 및 GPS 신호 분석에 장점을 가지고 있다. 또한 GPS 알고리즘 분석 및 수신기 성능 향상 검증 등 여러 연구분야에서 널리 이용되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 제안된 방법의 성능 검증을 위하여 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션 및 가공 IF 데이터를 이용한 소프트웨어 수신기 결과를 제시한다. 그 결과 제안된 방법은 전파 간섭 및 다중경로 오차 감쇄에 강인하며, GPS 항법시스템에서의 위치정확도 향상에 가능성을 보여준다. 그로므로 제안된 방법은 차량 항법 응용분야에서 방해신호 감쇄에 사용될 것으로 예상된다.Although hundreds of millions of receivers are used all around the world, the performance of location-based services(LBS) provided by GPS is still compromised by interference which includes unintentional distortion of correlation function due to multipath propagation. For this reason, the requirement for proper mitigation techniques becomes crucial in GPS receivers for robust, accurate, and reliable positioning. Multipath propagation can easily occur when environmental features cause combinations of reflected and diffracted replica signals to arrive at the receiving antenna. These signals which are combined with the original line-of-sight (LOS) signal can cause distortion of the receiver correlation function and ultimately distortion of the discrimination functionhence, errors in range estimation occur. Therefore, multipath error in the satellite navigation system to improve location accuracy is an important issue to be addressed. Recently, interference mitigation techniques utilizing multiple antennas have gained significant attention in GPS navigation systems. Although at the time of this dissertation, employing multiple antennas in GPS applications is mostly limited to academic research and possibly complicated military applications, it is expected that in the near future, antenna array-based receivers will also become widespread in civilian commercial markets. Rapid advances in antenna design technology and electronic systems make previously challenging problems in hardware and software easier to solve. Furthermore, due to the significant effort devoted to miniaturization of RF front-ends and antennas, the size of antenna array based receivers will no longer be a problem. Given the above, this dissertation investigates multiple antenna-based GPS the interference suppression and multipath mitigation. Firstly, a modified spatial processing technique is proposed that is capable of mitigating both high power interference and coherent and correlated GPS multipath signals. The use of spatial-temporal processing for GPS multipath mitigation is studied. A new method utilizing code carrier information based on multiple antennas is proposed to deal with highly correlated multipath components and to increase the signal to noise ratio of the beamformer by synthesizing antenna array processing. In order to verify the proposed method, a software defined GPS receiver is used. Software-based GPS signal processing technique has already produced benefits for prototyping new equipment and analyzing GPS signal quality. Not only do such receivers provide an excellent research tool for GPS algorithm verification, they also improve GPS receiver performance in a wide range of conditions. In this dissertation, the enhancement of the proposed method is presented in terms of the simulations and software defined GPS receiver using simulated IF data. From the result, the proposed method is robust to interference suppression, and multipath mitigation, and shows a strong possibility for use in improving location accuracy. Thus, this method can be employed to mitigate interference signals in vehicular navigation applications.Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements iv Contents v List of Figures x List of Tables xiv Chapter 1.Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Background and Motivation 2 1.2.1 Strong Narrowband and Wideband Interference 6 1.2.2 Multipath 7 1.3 Antenna Array Processing in GPS 11 1.3.1 Interference Suppression 11 1.3.2 Multipath Mitigation 13 1.4 Software-Defined GPS Receiver 15 1.5 Objective and Contribution 17 1.6 Dissertation Outline 18 Chapter 2. Global Positioning System 21 2.1 GPS System Overview 21 2.2 Basic Concept of GSP 25 2.3 Determining Satellite to User 28 2.4 Calculation of User Position 33 2.5 GPS Error Sources 40 2.5.1 Receiver Clock Bias 41 2.5.2 Satellite Clock Bias 42 2.5.3 Atmospheric Delay 43 2.5.4 Ephemeris Delay 46 2.5.5 Multipath Error 47 2.5.6 Receiver Noise 55 2.6 Summary 55 Chapter 3. Antenna Array Processing and Beamforming 56 3.1 Background on Antenna Arrays and Beamformers 56 3.1.1 Signal Model 59 3.2 Conventional Optimum Beamformers 69 3.2.1 Minimum Variance Distortionless Response Beamformer 69 3.2.2 Maximum Likelihood Estimator 71 3.2.3 Maximum Signal to Noise Interference Ratio Beamformer 72 3.2.4 Minimum Power Distortionless Response Beamformer 75 3.2.5 Linear Constrained Minimum Variance and Linear Constrained Minimum Power Beamformers 76 3.2.6 Eigenvector Beamformer 77 3.3 Space-Time Processing 81 3.4 Array Calibration 85 3.5 Summary 86 Chapter 4. Multipath Mitigation using Code-Carrier Information 87 4.1 Introduction 87 4.2 Interference Suppression and Multipath Mitigation 88 4.2.1 Signal Model 88 4.2.2 Interference Suppression by Subspace Projection 90 4.2.3 Multipath Mitigation by Subspace Projection 93 4.3 Determination of Multipath Satellites using Code-carrier Information 95 4.4 MSR Beamformer 100 4.5 Simulation Results 102 4.5.1 Subspace Projection and Beamforming 102 4.5.2 Performance Comparison 109 4.6 Summary 111 Chapter 5. Performance Verification using Software-Defined GPS Receiver 113 5.1 Introduction 113 5.2 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Methodology 114 5.2.1 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Signals 115 5.2.2 Software-Defined GPS Receiver Modules 116 5.3 Architecture of Software-Defined GPS Receiver 120 5.3.1 GPS Signal Generation 120 5.3.2 Interference Signal Generation 124 5.3.1 Front-End Signal Processing 125 5.4 Experimental Results 126 5.3.1 Static Environments 128 5.3.2 Dynamic Environments 133 5.5 Summary 136 Chapter 6. Conclusions and Future Work 138 6.1 Conclusions 138 6.2 Future Work 139 Bibliography 142 Appendix 168 Abstract in Korean 170 Acknowledgments 173Docto

Wideband Channel Sounding Techniques for Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks

In recent years, cognitive radio has drawn extensive research attention due to its ability to improve the efficiency of spectrum usage by allowing dynamic spectrum resource sharing between primary and secondary users. The concept of cognitive radio was first presented by Joseph Mitola III and Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr., in which either network or wireless node itself changes particular transmission and reception parameters to execute its tasks efficiently without interfering with the primary users [1]. Such a transceiving mechanism and network environment is called the dynamic spectrum access (DSA) network. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allows any type of transmission in unlicensed bands at any time as long as their transmit power level obeys specific FCC regulations. Performing channel sounding as a secondary user in such an environment becomes a challenge due to the rapidly changing network environment and also the limited transmission power. Moreover, to obtain the long term behavior of the channel in the DSA network is impractical with conventional channel sounders due to frequent changes in frequency, transmission bandwidth, and power. Conventional channel sounding techniques need to be adapted accordingly to be operated in the DSA networks. In this dissertation, two novel channel sounding system frameworks are proposed. The Multicarrier Direct Sequence Swept Time-Delay Cross Correlation (MC-DS-STDCC) channel sounding technique is designed for the DSA networks aiming to perform channel sounding across a large bandwidth with minimal interference. It is based on the STDCC channel sounder and Multicarrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC-DS-CDMA) technique. The STDCC technique, defined by Parsons [2], was first employed by Cox in the measurement of 910 MHz band [3{6]. The MC-DS-CDMA technique enables the channel sounder to be operated at different center frequencies with low transmit power. Hence, interference awareness and frequency agility are achieved. The OFDM-based channel sounder is an alternative to the MC-DS-STDCC technique. It utilizes user data as the sounding signal such that the interference is minimized during the course of transmission. Furthermore, the OFDM-based channel sounder requires lower sampling rate than the MC-DS-STDCC system since no spreading is necessary

Infrared ranging in multipath environments for indoor localization of mobile targets

Esta tesis aborda el problema de la medida de diferencias de distancia mediante señales ópticas afectadas por multicamino, aplicada a la localización de agentes móviles en espacios interiores. Los avances en robótica, entornos inteligentes y vehículos autónomos han creado un campo de aplicación específico para la localización en interiores, cuyos requerimientos de precisión (en el rango de los cm) son muy superiores a los demandados por las aplicaciones de localización orientadas a personas, en cuyo contexto se han desarrollado la mayor parte de las alternativas tecnológicas. La investigación con métodos de geometría proyectiva basados en cámaras y de multilateración basados en medida de distancia con señales de radiofrecuencia de banda ancha, de ultrasonido y ópticas han demostrado un rendimiento potencial adecuado para cubrir estos requerimientos. Sin embargo, todas estas alternativas, aún en fase de investigación, presentan dificultades que limitan su aplicación práctica. En el caso de los sistemas ópticos, escasamente estudiados en este contexto, los trabajos previos se han basado en medidas de diferencia de fase de llegada de señales infrarrojas moduladas sinusoidalmente en intensidad. Una infraestructura centralizada computa medidas diferenciales, entre receptores fijos, de la señal emitida desde el móvil a posicionar, y calcula la posición del móvil mediante trilateración hiperbólica a partir de éstas. Estas investigaciones demostraron que se pueden alcanzar precisiones de pocos centímetros; sin embargo, las interferencias por multicamino debidas a la reflexión de la señal óptica en superficies del entorno pueden degradar esta precisión hasta las decenas de centímetros dependiendo de las características del espacio. Así pues, el efecto del multicamino es actualmente la principal fuente de error en esta tecnología, y por tanto, la principal barrera a superar para su implementación en situaciones reales. En esta tesis se propone y analiza un sistema de medida con señales ópticas que permite obtener estimaciones de diferencias de distancia precisas reduciendo el efecto crítico del multicamino. El sistema propuesto introduce una modulación con secuencias de ruido pseudoaleatorio sobre la modulación sinusoidal típicamente usada para medida de fase por onda continua, y aprovecha las propiedades de ensanchamiento en frecuencia de estas secuencias para reducir el efecto del multicamino. El sistema, que realiza una doble estimación de tiempo y fase de llegada, está compuesto por una etapa de sincronización que posibilita la demodulación parcialmente coherente de la señal recibida, seguida de un medidor diferencial de fase sobre las componentes desensanchadas tras la demodulación. Las condiciones de multicamino óptico típicas en espacios interiores, con una componente de camino directo claramente dominante, permiten que el proceso de demodulación recupere más potencia del camino directo que del resto de contribuciones, reduciendo el efecto del multicamino en la estimación final. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que la aplicación del método propuesto permitiría realizar posicionamiento a partir de señales ópticas con el rendimiento adecuando para aplicaciones de robótica y guiado de vehículos en espacios interiores; además, el progresivo aumento de la potencia y el ancho de banda de los dispositivos optoelectrónicos disponibles permite esperar un incremento considerable de las prestaciones de la propuesta en los próximos años

A Robust High-Accuracy Ultrasound Indoor Positioning System Based on a Wireless Sensor Network

This paper describes the development and implementation of a robust high-accuracy ultrasonic indoor positioning system (UIPS). The UIPS consists of several wireless ultrasonic beacons in the indoor environment. Each of them has a fixed and known position coordinate and can collect all the transmissions from the target node or emit ultrasonic signals. Every wireless sensor network (WSN) node has two communication modules: one is WiFi, that transmits the data to the server, and the other is the radio frequency (RF) module, which is only used for time synchronization between different nodes, with accuracy up to 1 μs. The distance between the beacon and the target node is calculated by measuring the time-of-flight (TOF) for the ultrasonic signal, and then the position of the target is computed by some distances and the coordinate of the beacons. TOF estimation is the most important technique in the UIPS. A new time domain method to extract the envelope of the ultrasonic signals is presented in order to estimate the TOF. This method, with the envelope detection filter, estimates the value with the sampled values on both sides based on the least squares method (LSM). The simulation results show that the method can achieve envelope detection with a good filtering effect by means of the LSM. The highest precision and variance can reach 0.61 mm and 0.23 mm, respectively, in pseudo-range measurements with UIPS. A maximum location error of 10.2 mm is achieved in the positioning experiments for a moving robot, when UIPS works on the line-of-sight (LOS) signal