Floor plan-free particle filter for indoor positioning of industrial vehicles

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is triggering the rapid development of solutions for indoor localization of industrial ve- hicles in the factories of the future. Either to support indoor navigation or to improve the operations of the factory, the localization of industrial vehicles imposes demanding requirements such as high accuracy, coverage of the entire operating area, low convergence time and high reliability. Industrial vehicles can be located using Wi-Fi fingerprinting, although with large positioning errors. In addition, these vehicles may be tracked with motion sensors, however an initial position is necessary and these sensors often suffer from cumulative errors (e.g. drift in the heading). To overcome these problems, we propose an indoor positioning system (IPS) based on a particle filter that combines Wi-Fi fingerprinting with data from motion sensors (displacement and heading). Wi-Fi position estimates are obtained using a novel approach, which explores signal strength measurements from multiple Wi-Fi interfaces. This IPS is capable of locating a vehicle prototype without prior knowledge of the starting position and heading, without depending on the building’s floor plan. An average positioning error of 0.74 m was achieved in performed tests in a factory-like building.