LPS Auto-Calibration Algorithm with Predetermination of Optimal Zones

Accurate coordinates for active beacons placed in the environment are required in Local Positioning Systems (LPS). These coordinates and the distances (or differences of distances) measured between the beacons and the mobile node to be localized are inputs to most trilateration algorithms. As a first approximation, such coordinates are obtained by means of manual measurements (a time-consuming and non-flexible method), or by using a calibration algorithm (i.e., automatic determination of beacon coordinates from ad hoc measurements). This paper presents a method to calibrate the beacons’ positions in a LPS using a mobile receiver. The method has been developed for both, spherical and hyperbolic trilateration. The location of only three test points must be known a priori, while the position of the other test points can be unknown. Furthermore, the paper describes a procedure to estimate the optimal positions, or approximate areas in the coverage zone, where the test-points necessary to calibrate the ultrasonic LPS should be placed. Simulation and experimental results show the improvement achieved when these optimal test-points are used instead of randomly selected ones

Calibration of Beacons for Indoor Environments based on a Digital Map and Heuristic Information

This paper proposes an algorithm for calibrating the position of beacons which are placed on the ceiling of an indoor environment. In this context, the term calibration is used to estimate the position coordinates of a beacon related to a known reference system in a map. The positions of a set of beacons are used for indoor positioning purposes. The operation of the beacons can be based on different technologies such as radiofrequency (RF), infrared (IR) or ultrasound (US), among others. In this case we are interested in the positions of several beacons that compose an Ultrasonic Local Positioning System (ULPS) placed on different strategic points of the building. The calibration proposal uses several distances from a beacon to the neighbor walls measured by a laser meter. These measured distances, the map of the building in a vector format and other heuristic data (such as the region in which the beacon is located, the approximate orientation of the distance measurements to the walls and the equations in the map coordinate system of the line defining these walls) are the inputs of the proposed algorithm. The output is the best estimation of the position of the beacon. The process is repeated for all the beacons. To find the best estimation of the position of the beacons we have implemented a numerical minimization based on the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and a Harmony Search (HS) methods. The proposal has been validated with simulations and real experiments, obtaining the positions of the beacons and an estimation of the error associated that depends on which walls (and the angle of incidence of the laser) are selected to make the distance measurements.Universidad de AlcaláJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaMinisterio de Economía y Competitivida

Error Estimation for the Linearized Auto-Localization Algorithm

The Linearized Auto-Localization (LAL) algorithm estimates the position of beacon nodes in Local Positioning Systems (LPSs), using only the distance measurements to a mobile node whose position is also unknown. The LAL algorithm calculates the inter-beacon distances, used for the estimation of the beacons’ positions, from the linearized trilateration equations. In this paper we propose a method to estimate the propagation of the errors of the inter-beacon distances obtained with the LAL algorithm, based on a first order Taylor approximation of the equations. Since the method depends on such approximation, a confidence parameter τ is defined to measure the reliability of the estimated error. Field evaluations showed that by applying this information to an improved weighted-based auto-localization algorithm (WLAL), the standard deviation of the inter-beacon distances can be improved by more than 30% on average with respect to the original LAL method

Localización y autocalibrado simultáneo con sistemas de posicionamiento local ultrasónicos

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Localización y autocalibrado simultáneo con sistemas de posicionamiento local ultrasónicos

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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

Silicon-Germanium Photodetectors for Optical Telecommunications

This thesis investigates the design and growth of silicon-germanium p-i-n photodetectors for optical telecommunications applications. Two types of heterostructures are considered: strained silicon-germanium layers grown directly on silicon substrates, and strain-balanced silicon-germanium/silicon superlattice grown on relaxed buffer layers. The heterostructures are designed using existing band structure models and are grown using solid source molecular beam epitaxy (SS-MBE). To facilitate these growths, an atomic absorption spectroscopy- based flux monitor for the silicon source is developed and calibrated. In addition, the development of a substrate preparation procedure for relaxed buffer layers that is compatible with SS-MBE is developed and allows the growth of epitaxial films with low defect densities. P-i-n diodes processed from these films are shown to have low reverse leakage currents densities compared to other competing devices. Photocurrent spectroscopy is used to characterize these structures. A clear reduction in the bandgap of the heterostructures over that of the constituent alloys due to exploitation of the Type-II band offsets in the silicon-germanium material system is demonstrated in both, the strained and strain-balanced photodetectors. Finally, the low leakage current densities are exploited to fabricate devices with noise equivalent powers comparable to or better than competing approaches based on the growth of germanium on silicon substrates

Research and technology 1987 annual report of the Kennedy Space Center

As the NASA Center responsible for assembly, checkout, servicing, launch, recovery, and operational support of Space Transportation System elements and payloads, Kennedy Space Center is placing increasing emphasis on the Center's research and technology program. In addition to strengthening those areas of engineering and operations technology that contribute to safer, more efficient, and more economical execution of our current mission, we are developing the technological tools needed to execute the Center's mission relative to future programs. The Engineering Development Directorate encompasses most of the laboratories and other Center resources that are key elements of research and technology program implementation, and is responsible for implementation of the majority of the projects of this Kennedy Space Center 1987 Annual Report

Sensory fusion of UBW-TOF-based location systems for mobile robotics

With the increasing need for mobile robots in industrial applications, real-time location systems, which is a crucial point in these applications, has attracted attention from many researchers around the world. Thus, robot location is the process of determining the robot position and orientation in its environment. Location systems using Ultra-WideBand (UWB) have been widely used in complex urban and indoor environments. Consequently, a moving UWB tag can be located by measuring the distances to fixed UWB anchors whose positions are known in advance. The difficulty of this approach remains in the fact that the measurements are not perfect. There will always be some noise in the measurements, and because of this, position determination could contain some errors that may result in decreased accuracy. In this work, the Pozyx performance, a low-cost Ultra-WideBand (UWB) Time-of-flight (TOF) technology solution, is studied and implemented on a mobile robot, through a beacon-based location scheme. In order to reduce the impact of measurement noise and system disturbances, the readings of odometry, Pozyx measures and the information of the lines of a known navigation path are fused to improve the estimated location of the mobile robot. Therefore, the goal of this integration is to improve the accuracy of location for indoor autonomous robots. Firstly, was studied the characterisation of the Pozyx measurement error among several test conditions. Then, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm is implemented using two heuristics that allow the release of the filter so that it converges to the correct robot pose after it has started to diverge. Consequently, the results obtained from the different location tests performed are presented and compared, to present the precision achieved and proving the several advantages of using heuristics. Overall, this work with Pozyx system showed that it is a proper and effective tool to improve the robot location in a challenging indoor environment given its good cost/accuracy trade-off