BLE-Based Indoor Positioning System: A Low-Cost Alternative to GPS for Indoor Navigation

Tracking a moving user in indoor environments using Bluetooth low energy beacons.

The ability to precisely locate and navigate a partially impaired or a blind person within a building is increasingly important for a wide variety of public safety and localization services. In this paper, we explore indoor localization algorithms using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons. We propose using the BLE beacon’s received signal strength indication (RSSI) and the geometric distance from the current beacon to the fingerprint point in the framework of fuzzy logic for calculating the Euclidean distance for the subsequent determination of location. According to our results, the fingerprinting algorithm with fuzzy logic type-2 (hesitant fuzzy sets) is fit for use as an indoor localization method with BLE beacons. The average error of localization is only 0.43 m, and the algorithm obtains a navigation precision of 98.2 ± 1%. This precision confirms that the algorithms provide great aid to a visually impaired person in unknown spaces, especially those designed without physical tactile guides, as confirmed by low Fréchet and Hausdorff distance values and high navigation efficiency index (NEI) scores.

Since GPS (Global Positioning System) cannot meet accuracy requirements indoors, indoor Location-Based Services (LBSs) have become increasingly important. BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) offers cost and accuracy advantages. Typically, the position fingerprinting method is used for indoor positioning. However, due to irregular reflection and absorption, the indoor environment introduces various offsets in Bluetooth RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). This study analyzed the RSSI space and proposed a pre-processing workflow to improve position estimation accuracy by correcting offsets in RSSI space for BLE fingerprinting methods using machine learning. Experiments performed using different position estimation methods showed that the corrected data achieved a 6% improvement over the filter-only result. This study also evaluated the effects of different pre-processing and post-processing filters on positioning accuracy. Experiments were also conducted using a published dataset and showed similar results.

Nowadays, indoor positioning services of mobile phone with Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons are increasingly used. However, due to the indoor environment has dense multipath fading, the positioning system has low accuracy. In this paper, the accuracy study of trilateration method for indoor positioning with BLE beacons is presented. The indoor environment room with 9.0 m width, 10.2 m length and 3 BLE beacons is studied. The received signal strength (RSS) of each BLE beacon is measured by using mobile phone. The distance between each BLE beacon and mobile phone is evaluated using channel model. After that, the trilateration method is used to approximate the position of mobile phone. The accuracies, which are obtained from one, average five and average ten measurements, are studied. The distance errors of all positions and the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the distance error are calculated and shown. The results show that the average multiple measurements tend to decrease the distance error.

Mobile and pervasive computing enabled a new realm of possibilities into the indoor positioning domain. Although many candidate technologies have been proposed, no one can still adapt to every use case. A case centered design and the implementation of the solution within the specific domain is the current research trend. With the rise of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons, i.e., platforms used to interact digitally with the real world, more standard positioning solutions are emerging in different contexts. However the reachable positioning accuracy with this technology is still unacceptable for some real applications (e.g., in the healthcare sector or the emergency management). In this paper, an hybrid localization application coupling a real time model based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) technique and the analysis of the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of BLE beacons is proposed. In particular, the smartphone application is composed by three main real time threads: a model based step length estimation, heading determination and the fusion of beacon information to reset the position and the drift error of the PDR. In order to give soundness to our approach we firstly validated the step length smartphone app with a stereo-photogrammetric system. The whole proposed solution was then tested on fifteen healthy subjects.

Bluetooth low energy (BLE)-based indoor localization has been extensively researched due to its cost-effectiveness, low power consumption, and ubiquity. Despite these advantages, the variability of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements, influenced by physical obstacles, human presence, and electronic interference, poses a significant challenge to accurate localization. In this work, we present an optimised method to enhance indoor localization accuracy by utilising multiple BLE beacons in a radio frequency (RF)-dense modern building environment. Through a proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate that using three BLE beacons reduces localization error from a worst-case distance of 9.09–2.94 m, whereas additional beacons offer minimal incremental benefit in such settings. Furthermore, our framework for BLE-based localization, implemented on an edge network of Raspberry Pies, has been released under an open-source license, enabling broader application and further research.

In this paper, we propose an indoor positioning system based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE), and the localization tag is with characteristics of low power, low cost, and high portability. The proposed system consists of BLE tags, BLE/WiFi repeaters, and a fusion server. The BLE tag is a device which broadcasts BLE beacons. The BLE/WiFi repeaters collect the beacons transmitted from the tag and extract the received signal strength (RSS). The RSS values are then transmitted to the fusion server through WiFi, and the server will estimate the position of the BLE tag with RSS-based positioning algorithm. We propose an indoor positioning algorithm which is a hybrid from received signal strength indication (RSSI)-fingerprint and cell of origin (CoO) to estimate the BLE tag's location. Some modifications are made to typical RSSI-fingerprint and CoO algorithm to get better accuracy. The test results show 1.2 m to 1.4 m positioning accuracy. The size of the BLE tag is 1.7 cm in radius and 0.5 cm thick. Each BLE tag costs 3 US dollars. The current consumption of the tag is 50 μA which can be used without charge for 136 days with a CR2025 battery.

This article presents a preliminary study in order to explore the possibilities for robot localization using measured received signal strength indicator (RSSI) from Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons. BLE is a new brand technology focused on information transmission using very low energy consumption. It is being included in mobile devices from year 2011, nowadays almost every new mobile phone is shipped with this technology. Robot localization using particles filter has been developed in recent years using wireless technologies with a significant success. BLE beacons measures are rather noisier than measures from similar wireless devices. In this work we make an initial model of BLE measures and their noise. The model is used to generate data to be processed by a particle filter designed for localization using only ultra-wide band (UWB) beacons ranges. Data are generated with different noise level in order to explore localization errors behavior, these levels cover real noise levels founded in RSSI measure characterization.

We present a smartphone-based application, called LocBLE, for enabling users to estimate the location of nearby Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons. In contrast to existing BLE beacon-based proximity applications that can only show coarse-grained (immediate, near, and far) distance estimation, LocBLE's fine-grained estimation can enhance human-environment interactions. LocBLE has three salient features in estimating location from BLE beacon signals. First, it is adaptive to dynamic signal propagation environments by learning the environmental changes directly from the received signal strength (RSS). Second, it performs sensor-fusion for location estimation by utilizing motion sensor data and RSS readings from a smartphone. Finally, LocBLE improves location tracking accuracy with novel on-line calibration on a set of beacons nearby. We have built a prototype of LocBLE on smartphones and evaluated it on commodity proximity-enabled beacons. Our experimental results demonstrate that LocBLE achieves an average of 1.8m and 1.2m accuracies in locating indoor and outdoor BLE beacons, respectively.

In this study, the repeated covering and uncovering by the hands of a beacon before one's eyes is performed, and the identification of the corresponding beacon is obtained based on the changes in the received signal strength indicator at the control terminal. Recently, beacons that employ Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) have spread, and are used for a variety of purposes. However, when one wishes to control several beacons, there are no clear means for readily identifying each beacon. In the proposed method, the changes in the received signal strength indicator of BLE are used to identify the BLE beacon. The output radio signals of BLE are weak, and almost all BLE beacons are small enough to fit in one's hand. If the beacon is covered with both hands, the signals of BLE are attenuated. In this study, the algorithms for beacon identification were examined, and control applications were prepared. In addition, it was possible to identify within 13 s the target beacon among several beacons.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons are useful to estimate a user’s location in indoor situations. Because our university has numerous BLE beacons, they are easy to use for indoor route navigation. For this study, we propose a position estimation method using BLE beacons. Using this method, we eliminate the existing difficulty of error accumulation of earlier systems and improve indoor location estimation accuracy. We designed an indoor position estimation method and conducted an estimation accuracy evaluation experiment comparing the proposed method and existing methods. The experiment results underscore the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) are an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) in those environments where its signal is attenuated. This is one of the main reasons why IPS has been the subject of much research over the last two decades and where different technologies and methods have been used. Among the technologies used in IPS are those that use radio frequency (RF) signals, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Wi-Fi. BLE is widely used in ubiquitous computing and in many applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) mainly due to its low power consumption and because it can provide advanced services to users. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the state of the art of BLE-based IPS including its main methods and algorithms.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has eventually become a common positioning technology. While GPS enabled many applications, satellite signals have yet to overcome many obstacles to enable indoor positioning. Meanwhile, due to the wide deployment of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) in recent years, WLAN positioning algorithms have become popular for mobile device positioning in indoor environments. The most accurate WLAN positioning algorithms exploit the so-called fingerprinting concept which consists of two stages. In the offline stage (training), the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) from a set of available Access Points (AP) is measured for a number of reference locations and stored in a database. Due to the availability of many APs and the complex structure of indoor environments, this information is distinctive for each reference location and thus is called a position fingerprint. In the online stage (testing), a mobile device receives RSSIs from the APs and their fingerprint is compared to the fingerprints that are stored in the database for a best possible match. WLAN fingerprinting can provide high accuracy in indoor environments when there are many APs which ensure fingerprint uniqueness. This paper provides a novel approach to use WLAN multipath signals as possible fingerprints for positioning algorithms for applications with lower number of access points. The paper provides an initial study.

EyeRemember is a mobile app designed to run on wearable electronic devices and serve as an external memory aid for people with brain injury (BI). EyeRemember allows users to voice-record information about family, friends and caregivers (referred to as ‘contacts’ in the app). The technology detects the presence of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons carried by the user’s contacts and reminds users of the recorded information when contacts are present. EyeRemember was first developed for Google Glass and later for Android Wear smartwatches. Both versions were developed in accordance with user-centered design principles, by including end-users and identifying their needs, wants and limitations throughout the design process. This paper describes the features and functionality of EyeRemember, its interaction with BLE beacons and the implementation of the user-centered design process used to collect ongoing feedback from people with brain injury, their caregivers and clinicians at Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The research design and results of clinical testing are also described. Results indicate EyeRemember is a clinically effective tool for memory compensation for some people with BI and suggests combining wearable computers with BLE beacons may be effective assistive technology. These results support previous research summarized in systematic guidelines recommending the use of external memory aids for memory compensation after BI and indicate it is likely these guidelines are applicable to novel and emerging technologies. The results also further validate previous research demonstrating systematic instruction as an effective method for training the use of technology for people with memory problems.

Nowadays, location-based services are common in our daily lives. Traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) location can provide real-time location function in outdoor complex environments, but it is insufficient for indoor location. There are many indoor location technologies, such as ultrasound, Zigbee, RFID and WIFI. RFID location technology has attracted the attention of researchers due to its high precision and low cost. Most existing RFID location algorithms are based on RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) measurement. When converting RSSI to distance, the inaccurate estimation of the path loss parameter may lead to large error. In order to reduce the deviation, this paper proposes a new RFID location algorithm. Specifically, the RSSI of the target tag is read in different directions of the antenna, and the position information is predicted by the general regression neural network, which is optimized by the optimization algorithm. The experimental results show the efficiency of our proposed algorithm.