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This paper presents research to develop an ultrawideband ranging sensor for personnel indoor localization based on the measurement of the pulse round-trip time. An approach combining flexibility, a high measurement update rate, and asynchronous operation with digital processing capability has been employed in the design of the sensor. The principle of operation, the architecture of the realized sensor, and the experimental setup are described. Finally, the results of a ranging calibration and validation test are presented and discussed. In the validation procedure, a root-mean-square error of 29 cm and a maximum absolute error of 81 cm with an operational range of approximately 10 m were observed.

-In this paper, a research activity aimed at developing an indoor positioning system is presented. The realized system prototype uses sensor fusion techniques to combine information from two sources: a local Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radio based distance-measuring system infrastructure and an Inertial Navigation System (INS). The UWB system provides a measure of distance between two transceivers by measuring the time-of-flight of pulses. Its principle of operation is briefly described, together with the main features of its architecture. Furthermore, the main characteristics of the INS and of the Extended Kalman Filter information fusion approach are presented. Finally, some experimental results are provided, relative to static and dynamic position measurements.

Abstract-In this paper we develop a new technique for estimating fine clock errors and range between two nodes simultaneously by two-way time-of-arrival measurements using impulse-radio ultra-wideband signals. Estimators for clock parameters and the range are proposed that are robust with respect to outliers. They are analyzed numerically and by means of experimental measurement campaigns. The technique and derived estimators achieve accuracies below 1 Hz for frequency estimation, below 1 ns for phase estimation and 20 cm for range estimation, at 4 m distance using 100 MHz clocks at both nodes. Therefore, we show that the proposed joint approach is practical and can simultaneously provide clock synchronization and positioning in an experimental system.

This paper describes the design and realization of a Magnetic Indoor Positioning System. The system is entirely realized using off-the-shelf components and is based on inductive coupling between resonating coils. Both system-level architecture and realization details are described along with experimental results. The realized system exhibits a maximum positioning error of less than 10 cm in an indoor environment over a 3×3 m 2 area. Extensive experiments in larger areas, in non-line-of-sight conditions, and in unfavorable geometric configurations, show sub-meter accuracy, thus validating the robustness of the system with respect to other existing solutions.