Many Ways Lead to the Goal—Possibilities of Autonomous and Infrastructure-Based Indoor Positioning

Abstract

There are many ways to navigate in Global Navigation Satellite System-(GNSS) shaded areas. Reliable indoor pedestrian navigation has been a central aim of technology researchers in recent years; however, there still exist open challenges requiring re-examination and evaluation. In this paper, a novel dataset is used to evaluate common approaches for autonomous and infrastructure-based positioning methods. The autonomous variant is the most cost-effective realization; however, realizations using the real test data demonstrate that the use of only autonomous solutions cannot always provide a robust solution. Therefore, correction through the use of infrastructure-based position estimation based on smartphone technology is discussed. This approach invokes the minimum cost when using existing infrastructure, whereby Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) forms the basis of the autonomous position estimation. Realizations with Particle Filters (PF) and a topological approach are presented and discussed. Floor plans and routing graphs are used, in this case, to support PDR positioning. The results show that the positioning model loses stability after a given period of time. Fifth Generation (5G) mobile networks can enable this feature, as well as a massive number of use-cases, which would benefit from user position data. Therefore, a fusion concept of PDR and 5G is presented, the benefit of which is demonstrated using the simulated data. Subsequently, the first implementation of PDR with 5G positioning using PF is carried out.