Indoor fingerprinting algorithm for room level accuracy with dynamic database

This paper introduces novel schemes for indoor localization, outlier detection, and radio map interpolation using wireless local area networks. The localization method consists of a novel multicomponent optimization technique that minimizes the squared $\ell _{2}$ -norm of the residuals between the radio map and the online received signal strength (RSS) measurements, the $\ell _{1}$ -norm of the user's location vector, and weighted $\ell _{2}$ -norms of layered groups of reference points (RPs). RPs are grouped using a new criterion based on the similarity between the so-called access point (AP) coverage vectors. In addition, since AP readings are prone to containing inordinate readings, called outliers, an augmented optimization problem is proposed to detect the outliers and localize the user with cleaned online measurements. Moreover, a novel scheme to record fingerprints from a smaller number of RPs and estimate the radio map at RPs without recorded fingerprints is developed using sparse recovery techniques. All localization schemes are tested on RSS fingerprints collected from a real environment. The overall scheme has comparable complexity with competing approaches, while it performs with high accuracy under a small number of APs and finer granularity of RPs.

In recent years, Location-Based Services (LBS) have been widely applied in people's life with various localization technologies. Because outdoor localization methods are not suitable for indoor environments, various indoor localization methods have been developed. Among the existing indoor localization methods, Wi-Fi fingerprinting localization has attracted great concerns because of its wide applicability, simple deployment, and comparable performance. This paper proposed an interpolation method for radio map establishment based on RSS clustering and propagation model optimization. Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering algorithm is used to cluster the Received Signal Strength (RSS) samples collected at Reference Points (RPs). In each cluster, propagation model parameters are optimized. Then RSS samples are estimated at select locations for radio map establishment. With the radio map after interpolation, more accurate localization results can be computed using K Nearest Neighbors (KNN) fingerprinting algorithm.

The most viable strategy to establish a dependable indoor positioning system is by employing the received signal strength (RSS) based fingerprinting technique, which encompasses both the offline and online phases. The offline phase involves constructing a radio map, which can be arduous in vast indoor environments. To tackle this, radio map interpolation is often used to interpolate RSS by utilizing the RSS recorded at a coarser level of known reference points (RPs). This paper proposes a novel RSS-based radio map interpolation to enhance the existing inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation technique. The method divides the deployment area into zones and optimizes the density of known RPs in each zone based on the number of access points (APs) with average RSS exceeding the threshold. It allocates higher RP density for the zones with poor AP coverage and reduces it for well-covered zones. Results demonstrates that the proposed method achieves substantial improvements over the baseline IDW scheme in average positioning error of up to 6.58% at the floor level and 3.77% overall.

Device-free passive (DFP) localization systems are a key solution for location-based services because they do not require any wireless device on a human body. Most of the existing DFP localization systems are based on the received signal strength (RSS) measurement only. However, the localization accuracy of RSS only-based systems is easily affected by the spatial and temporal variances of RSS due to multipath fading and noise, even in a static environment. In this paper, we propose a novel localization system for DFP using signal subspace eigenvectors from an antenna array. We present a fingerprinting technique using multiclass support vector machines (SVMs) based on a combination of array signal features with spatial and temporal averaging. We then evaluate the localization accuracy of our proposed system in different propagation environments: line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS). In addition, we analyze two types of receive antenna placement: centralized and distributed antennas. The experimental results show that the localization accuracy can be improved by the proposed system, particularly in the centralized antenna case. Moreover, they show that the proposed system can improve localization accuracy compared to the conventional RSS-only based system.

As a simple and inexpensive channel characteristic, received signal strength (RSS) finds extensive usage in localization applications. However, the quick changes in signal strength impact the localization precision. By averaging over access points (APs) with multiple frequencies and/or heights, this article suggests a novel approach to lowering RSS fluctuation. Initially focused on the plane-earth loss model, the study was later extended to include a multipath indoor propagation scenario that was simulated. We used ray-tracing software to model the indoor propagation situation. This research takes into account the results of three distinct methods for averaging RSS: height averaging, frequency averaging, and hybrid frequency and height (FH) averaging, which combines the two. We discovered that the Height-only strategy considerably decreased the RSS variation with distance for both settings we looked at. Using the frequency-only method even further reduced the variation. Using the Hybrid FH technique greatly enhances the results. Root mean square error values of 4.427 dB, 3.70 dB, and 3.5 dB, respectively, are provided for the averaging approaches and the ideal scenario in which no variance occurs. Another finding is that averaging with APs that have double the height or frequency will not improve the RSS distance variation.

Radio map construction requires a large amount of radio measurement data with location labels, which imposes a high deployment cost. This paper develops a region-based radio map from received signal strength (RSS) measurements without location labels. The construction is based on a set of blindly collected RSS measurement data from a device that visits each region in an indoor area exactly once, where the footprints and timestamps are not recorded. The main challenge is to cluster the RSS data and match clusters with the physical regions. Classical clustering algorithms fail to work as the RSS data naturally appears as non-clustered due to multipaths and noise. In this paper, a signal subspace model with a sequential prior is constructed for the RSS data, and an integrated segmentation and clustering algorithm is developed, which is shown to find the globally optimal solution in a special case. Furthermore, the clustered data is matched with the physical regions using a graph-based approach. Based on real measurements from an office space, the proposed scheme reduces the region localization error by roughly 50% compared to a weighted centroid localization (WCL) baseline, and it even outperforms some supervised localization schemes, including k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and deep neural network (DNN), which require labeled data for training.

This paper focuses on the implementation problems for indoor positioning system, whose main process includes building fingerprint database, ranging and matching online. During the construction of a fingerprint map, signal characteristics are collected at known positions or reference points in a building. While in the ranging and online phase, mobile device application scans access points around and selects two access points from which received signal strengths are stronger, then we convert the signal strengths into a rectangular region where the user is surely inside it. Meanwhile, the current fingerprint probability distributions are compared with the offline radio fingerprint map. The user's location is estimated by calculating the smallest Bhattacharyya distance in the above-mentioned rectangular region. Experiments show that our method by means of parameter optimizing reaches a median error of 2.82m, which is superior to the median error of 3.4m by traditional Wi-Fi fingerprint.

The device diversity problem is an important issue in indoor fingerprinting localization systems based on received signal strength (RSS). Since different mobile devices are usually equipped with different brands and types of radio transceivers, the RSS samples collected at the same location for the same access point (AP) may be much different. In this paper, we propose an inter-device calibration scheme together with a threshold-based AP selection for offline training fingerprint composition. Furthermore, we propose to use transformed fingerprints for online positioning to further reduce the negative impact of the device diversity problem. We conduct field measurements and experiments to examine the localization performance. Results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in terms of lower localization errors, compared with the peer schemes.

In this paper, we introduce two indoor Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) positioning methods using augmented sparse recovery algorithms. These schemes render a sparse user's position vector, and in parallel, minimize the distance between the online measurement and radio map. The overall localization scheme for both methods consists of three steps: 1) coarse localization, obtained from comparing the online measurements with clustered radio map. A novel graph-based method is proposed to cluster the offline fingerprints. In the online phase, a Region Of Interest (ROI) is selected within which we search for the user's location; 2) Access Point (AP) selection; and 3) fine localization through the novel sparse recovery algorithms. Since the online measurements are subject to inordinate measurement readings, called outliers, the sparse recovery methods are modified in order to jointly estimate the outliers and user's position vector. The outlier detection procedure identifies the APs whose readings are either not available or erroneous. The proposed localization methods have been tested with Received Signal Strength (RSS) measurements in a typical office environment and the results show that they can localize the user with significantly high accuracy and resolution which is superior to the results from competing WLAN fingerprinting localization methods.

The increasing demand of indoor Location Based Services (LBS) has made Indoor Positioning System (IPS) a hot research topic. Recently, various machine learning techniques have been developed to tackle the problems of IPS. The WLAN fingerprinting technique is one of the most cost effective choices for IPS due to the use of existing Wi-Fi networks in commercial and public buildings. However, the variation of Received Signal Strength (RSS) at any specific location due to the indoor fading issue leads to serious challenges in the accuracy of the distance estimates. In this paper, we propose a new technique by using Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) multi-classifier based on Multiple Service Set Identifiers (MSSIDs) that are configured on the same access point. A spatial voting scenario for three PNN-classifiers is proposed as a tool to determine the location of the user. Using a spatial voting based technique is specifically designed to tackle the negative impact of the multi-path propagation on the performance of IPS. The proposed system is performed inside the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at Western Michigan University. The performance of the proposed system compared with some of the common methods such as K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN) and multi-class support vector machine (SVM). According to the experimental results, the spatial voting of the three PNN-dassifiers can significantly mitigate the adverse effects of RSS variation. The performance of the multi-classifier exhibits superior performance to that of the other single classifiers in all Area of Interest (AOI). Over 3000 m2 AOI, the proposed system achieves localization accuracy < 0.73m and with precision 90 % of the distance error less than 2m.

With growing technology, Location Based Services (LBSs) are becoming a vital part of life. The rapid development of mobile internet has offered an opportunity for Wi-Fi indoor positioning to come under the spotlight due to its low cost. Here, indoor positioning is performed using Wi-Fi. The earlier solutions like GPS does not provide efficient positioning in indoor environment due to weak signal reception which makes Wi-Fi more reliable. However, nowadays the accuracy of the traditional indoor positioning algorithms like trilateration cannot meet the practical requirement. This paper proposes the performance analysis of indoor positioning algorithms using Wi-Fi technology based on Received Signal Strength (RSS) from the access points in the network. The positioning algorithms are based on location fingerprinting consisting of two stages: The offline database creation and the online positioning. The RSS values obtained by the mobile device at reference points are sent to the server where all the location fingerprints of all reference points are stored in a database. Coordinates of user position are calculated using positioning algorithms and the position is displayed in terms of 2Dcoordinates of the room and indoor map. Basic Fingerprint algorithm, RSS Fingerprint with minimum Euclidean Distance algorithm and RSS Fingerprint with Euclidean Distance and k-nearest neighbors' algorithm were implemented. Moreover comparison of their performance was carried out in terms of accuracy of position. From the result, it is found that an average accuracy of 0.4962 meters was achieved by RSS Fingerprint with minimum Euclidean distance algorithm.

Fingerprint based Wi-Fi localisation system often takes a lot of human efforts to measure the received signal strength (RSS) of dense grid in an indoor environment. In this paper, we propose a novel fingerprint database construction method with reduced human effort to obtain optimal length of RSS time series and grid division. We verify the chaotic characteristics of RSS time series, and use phase space reconstruction algorithm to calculate the optimal length of RSS data to be collected at each reference point. Then Gaussian process regression (GPR) for fingerprinting based indoor localisation is used to construct the database with information of limited reference points. The hyper-parameters of GPR is calculated by conjugate gradient descent algorithm. The performance of the proposed radio map construction framework is validated in real indoor environment, and with using Bayesian positioning method, the localisation error mean can be 1.5 m while the construction time of radio map is greatly reduced with ensuring accuracy.

Wi-Fi-based indoor positioning systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in digital transitions; therefore, ensuring accurate and robust positioning is essential to supporting the growth in demand for smartphones’ location-based services. The indoor positioning system on a smartphone, which is generally based on Wi-Fi received signal strength (RSS) measurements or the fingerprinting comparison technique, uses the K-NN algorithm to estimate the position due to its high accuracy. The fingerprinting algorithm is popular due to its ease of implementation and its ability to produce the desired accuracy. However, in a practical environment, the Wi-Fi signal strength-based positioning system is highly influenced by external factors such as changes in the environment, human interventions, obstacles in the signal path, signal inconsistency, signal loss due to the barriers, the non-line of sight (NLOS) during signal propagation, and the high level of fluctuations in the RSS, which affects location accuracy. In this paper, we propose a method that combines pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) and Wi-Fi fingerprinting to select a k-node to participate in the K-NN algorithm for fingerprinting-based IPSs. The selected K-node is used for the K-NN algorithm to improve the robustness and overall accuracy. The proposed hybrid method can overcome practical environmental issues and reduces the KNN algorithm’s complexity by selecting the nearest neighbors’ search space for comparison using the PDR position estimate as the reference position. Our approach provides a sustainable solution for indoor positioning systems, reducing energy consumption and improving the overall environmental impact. The proposed method has potential applications in various domains, such as smart buildings, healthcare, and retail. The proposed method outperforms the traditional KNN algorithm in our experimental condition since its average position error is less than 1.2 m, and provides better accuracy.

Mobile indoor localisation has numerous uses for logistics and health applications. Current wireless localisation systems experience reliability difficulties in indoor environments due to interference and also require a large number of wireless access points to ensure position accuracy and resolution. Localisation using wireless channel propagation characteristics, such as radio-frequency (RF) receives signal strength are subject to wireless interference. The Fingerprint Context Aware Partitioning (FCAP) tracking model used received RF signal strength fingerprinting, combined with context aware information about the user's indoor environment. The authors show the use of context aware information in the FCAP model, reduces the effect of wireless interference and lowers the spatial density of access points required. The wireless localisation network consisted of reference nodes placed at locations in a building. Reference nodes are used by mobile nodes, to localise a user's position. The authors tested the FCAP model in a typical indoor environment and compared the performance and accuracy to other received signal strength indicator fingerprint localisation methods. They found the FCAP model had improved performance and was able to achieve a similar accuracy to other protocols, with fewer reference nodes.

Fingerprint-based localization systems mainly utilize the received signal strength (RSS) to estimate the location of a receiver, and the localization accuracy depends largely on the number and placement of access points (APs). In this paper, we propose a novel method for placing the APs, which aims to minimize the total number of similar fingerprints (SFs) over the entire array of training locations. Minimizing SFs will increase the diversity of RSS array and hence improve localization accuracy. To solve the problem using a simple brute force search would be highly computationally expensive and inefficient. Instead, we propose a heuristic optimization algorithm based on Simulated Annealing (SA). Numerical results are obtained for both the brute force search and the SA based approach. Finally, the proposed algorithm's outputs, i.e., the APs' locations, are used with a K-Nearest Neighbors based localization algorithm, and the resulting localization errors are analyzed.