Sensors and Systems for Indoor Positioning

This reprint is a reprint of the articles that appeared in Sensors' (MDPI) Special Issue on “Sensors and Systems for Indoor Positioning". The published original contributions focused on systems and technologies to enable indoor applications

A survey of deep learning approaches for WiFi-based indoor positioning

One of the most popular approaches for indoor positioning is WiFi fingerprinting, which has been intrinsically tackled as a traditional machine learning problem since the beginning, to achieve a few metres of accuracy on average. In recent years, deep learning has emerged as an alternative approach, with a large number of publications reporting sub-metre positioning accuracy. Therefore, this survey presents a timely, comprehensive review of the most interesting deep learning methods being used for WiFi fingerprinting. In doing so, we aim to identify the most efficient neural networks, under a variety of positioning evaluation metrics for different readers. We will demonstrate that despite the new emerging WiFi signal measures (i.e. CSI and RTT), RSS produces competitive performances under deep learning. We will also show that simple neural networks outperform more complex ones in certain environments

Fast Iterative 3D Mapping for Large-Scale Outdoor Environments with Local Minima Escape Mechanism

This paper introduces a novel iterative 3D mapping framework for large scale natural terrain and complex environments. The framework is based on an Iterative-Closest-Point (ICP) algorithm and an iterative error minimization mechanism, allowing robust 3D map registration. This was accomplished by performing pairwise scan registrations without any prior known pose estimation information and taking into account the measurement uncertainties due to the 6D coordinates (translation and rotation) deviations in the acquired scans. Since the ICP algorithm does not guarantee to escape from local minima during the mapping, new algorithms for the local minima estimation and local minima escape process were proposed. The proposed framework is validated using large scale field test data sets. The experimental results were compared with those of standard, generalized and non-linear ICP registration methods and the performance evaluation is presented, showing improved performance of the proposed 3D mapping framework

NAVIGATION STRATEGY FOR MOBILE ROBOT BASED ON COMPUTER VISION AND YOLOV5 NETWORK IN THE UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENT

Intelligent mobile robots must possess the ability to navigate in complex environments. The field of mobile robot navigation is continuously evolving, with various technologies being developed. Deep learning has gained attention from researchers, and numerous navigation models utilizing deep learning have been proposed. In this study, the YOLOv5 model is utilized to identify objects to aid the mobile robot in determining movement conditions. However, the limitation of deep learning models being trained on insufficient data, leading to inaccurate recognition in unforeseen scenarios, is addressed by introducing an innovative computer vision technology that detects lanes in real-time. Combining the deep learning model with computer vision technology, the robot can identify different types of objects, allowing it to estimate distance and adjust speed accordingly. Additionally, the paper investigates the recognition reliability in varying light intensities. The findings of this study offer promising directions for future breakthroughs in mobile robot navigatio

Intelligent strategies for mobile robotics in laboratory automation

In this thesis a new intelligent framework is presented for the mobile robots in laboratory automation, which includes: a new multi-floor indoor navigation method is presented and an intelligent multi-floor path planning is proposed; a new signal filtering method is presented for the robots to forecast their indoor coordinates; a new human feature based strategy is proposed for the robot-human smart collision avoidance; a new robot power forecasting method is proposed to decide a distributed transportation task; a new blind approach is presented for the arm manipulations for the robots

Autonomous Robots in Dynamic Indoor Environments: Localization and Person-Following

Autonomous social robots have many tasks that they need to address such as localization, mapping, navigation, person following, place recognition, etc. In this thesis we focus on two key components required for the navigation of autonomous robots namely, person following behaviour and localization in dynamic human environments. We propose three novel approaches to address these components; two approaches for person following and one for indoor localization. A convolutional neural networks based approach and an Ada-boost based approach are developed for person following. We demonstrate the results by showing the tracking accuracy over time for this behaviour. For the localization task, we propose a novel approach which can act as a wrapper for traditional visual odometry based approaches to improve the localization accuracy in dynamic human environments. We evaluate this approach by showing how the performance varies with increasing number of dynamic agents present in the scene. This thesis provides qualitative and quantitative evaluations for each of the approaches proposed and show that we perform better than the current approaches

Invoking Deep Learning for Joint Estimation of Indoor LiFi User Position and Orientation

Light-fidelity (LiFi) is a fully-networked bidirectional optical wireless communication (OWC) that is considered a promising solution for high-speed indoor connectivity. Unlike in conventional radio frequency wireless systems, the OWC channel is not isotropic, meaning that the device orientation affects the channel gain significantly. However, due to the lack of proper channel models for LiFi systems, many studies have assumed that the receiver is vertically upward and randomly located within the coverage area, which is not a realistic assumption from a practical point of view. In this paper, novel realistic and measurement-based channel models for indoor LiFi systems are proposed. Precisely, the statistics of the channel gain are derived for the case of randomly oriented stationary and mobile LiFi receivers. For stationary users, two channel models are proposed, namely, the modified truncated Laplace (MTL) model and the modified Beta (MB) model. For LiFi users, two channel models are proposed, namely, the sum of modified truncated Gaussian (SMTG) model and the sum of modified Beta (SMB) model. Based on the derived models, the impact of random orientation and spatial distribution of LiFi users is investigated, where we show that the aforementioned factors can strongly affect the channel gain and system performance

A Meta-Review of Indoor Positioning Systems

An accurate and reliable Indoor Positioning System (IPS) applicable to most indoor scenarios has been sought for many years. The number of technologies, techniques, and approaches in general used in IPS proposals is remarkable. Such diversity, coupled with the lack of strict and verifiable evaluations, leads to difficulties for appreciating the true value of most proposals. This paper provides a meta-review that performed a comprehensive compilation of 62 survey papers in the area of indoor positioning. The paper provides the reader with an introduction to IPS and the different technologies, techniques, and some methods commonly employed. The introduction is supported by consensus found in the selected surveys and referenced using them. Thus, the meta-review allows the reader to inspect the IPS current state at a glance and serve as a guide for the reader to easily find further details on each technology used in IPS. The analyses of the meta-review contributed with insights on the abundance and academic significance of published IPS proposals using the criterion of the number of citations. Moreover, 75 works are identified as relevant works in the research topic from a selection of about 4000 works cited in the analyzed surveys

Recent Advances in Indoor Localization Systems and Technologies

Despite the enormous technical progress seen in the past few years, the maturity of indoor localization technologies has not yet reached the level of GNSS solutions. The 23 selected papers in this book present the recent advances and new developments in indoor localization systems and technologies, propose novel or improved methods with increased performance, provide insight into various aspects of quality control, and also introduce some unorthodox positioning methods