Highly accurate and robust indoor positioning is still an unsolved challenge. Given the convincing performance and wide-spread availability of the satellite-borne Global Positioning System (GPS) for outdoors, one would expect that an indoor localization system is relatively easy to implement. However, such technology is still an active area of research, due to the challenging physical propagation channel conditions it is facing. Signals getting reflected from walls and other objects - so-called multipath components - will make the range information in the line-of-sight signal useless, if it can be detected at all. At the SPSC Lab, we have been investigating this problem over the past years. We made significant progress towards solving this problem by making use of the reflected multipath components in stead of suffering from them [1].

In the Multipath-assisted Indoor Navigation and Tracking project, we aim at building a prototype of this localization approach. We already have a working demo system using laboratory measurement equipment as data source [2]. However, this is expensive and and requires a lot of cabled connections to show the benefits of this approach. In this project and/or thesis, alternative low-power/low-complexity hardware platforms should be explored in terms of their applicability for MINT. Also, novel aspects such as synchronization between the different devices or cooperative algorithms for localization can be addressed.

Your tasks:

• Implement different features of [2] on candidate hardware platforms (using existing APIs)
• Enhance software for prototype by different aspects, e.g. synchronization
• Testing and evaluation in environments where measurement data for comparison are already available

Your Profile

• Motivation and reliability are a prerequisite
• Matlab programming skills
• Good background in wireless communications (e.g. Mobile Radio Systems course)

References

[1] P. Meissner, E. Leitinger, M. Froehle and K. Witrisal, “Accurate and Robust Indoor Localization Systems Using Ultra-wideband Signals”, in European Conference on Navigation (ENC), 2013.

[2] P. Meissner, E. Leitinger, M. Lafer and K. Witrisal, “Real-Time Demonstration System for Multipath-Assisted Indoor Navigation and Tracking (MINT)”, IEEE ICC Workshop on Advances in Network Localization and Navigation (ANLN), 2014