Universal Navigation on Smartphones

Abstract. Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of navigation systems. They gradually become the default way of navigating in our daily life. Despite benefiting from their convenience, we may be negatively influenced by them (Parush et al. 2007). Current navigation systems usually draw too much of users' attention to the mobile devices, which leads to users’ lacking interaction with the environment. It is often the case that people easily forget travelled route and get lost without navigation systems (Reilly et al. 2008). Empirical study shows that by dividing attention, navigation systems impair users’ spatial memory, and thus impact their navigation skills (Gardony et al. 2013). Since a higher engagement with the environment can improve users’ spatial knowledge acquisition without decreasing efficiency (Brügger et al. 2017), navigation systems should incorporate important environmental features.As objects of visual, cognitive or structural importance (Sorrows & Hirtle 1999), landmarks have been extensively studied, and considered as an important environmental feature to be incorporated into navigation systems (Nuhn & Timpf 2018, Richter 2017, Duckham et al. 2010, Raubal & Winter 2002). They serve as references to provide users with more natural and pleasant navigating experience (Richter & Winter 2014). However, most of landmark-related studies are in outdoor environment. Although researchers have attempted to classify and assess indoor landmarks (Ohm 2014, Viaene 2014), it is still very difficult to determine suitable ones. As a subset of semantic indoor landmarks, existing navigational aids (e.g. signs and floor plans) are designed to assist navigation. Among them, signs are most preferred by users (Wang et al. 2017). Being the signs that give necessary information to route users to possible destinations, directional signs contribute most to wayfinding (Gibson 2009). With route information explicitly presented by them, they are relevant environmental features to be incorporated into indoor navigation systems.In this study, we therefore propose to incorporate directional signs into indoor navigation systems, in order to guide users’ attention back to the environment, to facilitate their spatial learning and improve their spatial knowledge acquisition.We incorporated directional signs into a proof-of-concept indoor navigation system. First, we integrated directional signs and their semantics into a graph-based model. A directional sign was modelled as a node. Each destination on the sign was linked with the sign by an edge. In order to differentiate it from the normal edge, it was marked as semantic edge. Thus, the semantics of the sign was modelled directly into the graph, instead of being stored as attributes in a previous version of our study (Wang & Gartner 2018). Then, a top-K shortest path algorithm was employed to find candidate routes (Yen 1971). In the end, the route with the largest coverage of semantic edges was suggested to the user. The users would then be explicitly guided to follow the directional signs in the environment.In the next step, we will evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed navigation system by an empirical study with human subjects. Within the experiment, we will also investigate on whether this kind of guidance can succeed in drawing users’ attention back to the environment and support their spatial knowledge acquisition.

Abstract:Perception-based navigation systems have become more popular in robotic applications such as autonomous moving vehicles in hospitals, logistics, packing and forwarding, mines, military, defense, consumer robots, building surveillance, rescuing and carrying a child or physically challenged people, and so on, due to the need, advanced development, and large influence. To improve positioning, localization, and path planning on obstacle-free trajectories, several navigation designs have been developed. In this study, we attempt to analyze various navigation methods and technologies applied by mobile robots in various applications. On paths without obstacles, a number of navigation designs have been created to enhance positioning, localization, and path planning. An overview of many navigation technologies is given in this article. The paper focuses on Measurand-based navigation of mobile robot applications in a diverse environment by taking into account previous research works. Additionally, there is a comparison of technologies, methodologies, applications, algorithms for error reduction, and different kinds of perception systems, in addition to metrics like accuracy and usability. This limited study focuses on the integration of an antenna with an IMU-based navigation system that is suited for all environments, as well as some future trends to detect to aid in the profound-implication of navigation system enhancement in robotic applications.

This paper deals with navigation of mobile device in outdoor and indoor environment by only navigation system or application. In the paper, the navigation system is proposed in the light of seamless navigation service. Main parts of the system from positioning point of view are based on GPS and WifiLOC system. WifiLOC is an indoor positioning system based on Wi-Fi technology. The proposal of the system will be described in detail. The system is implemented at the University of Zilina as a pilot, noncommercial project; therefore it is called University Mobile Navigation System (UMNS). The navigation system can be characterized as real-time system, that is, the system operations cannot be significantly delayed. Since delay of the system depends significantly on communication platform used for map information downloading or communication with the localization server. We decided to investigate an impact of the used communication platform on the time needs for some of the functions implemented in navigation system. Measurements were performed in the real-world application. Next experiment is focused on testing of the accuracy of used indoor positioning system. Outdoor positioning accuracy is not tested because GPS is utilized in outdoor, and this system was already exhaustively investigated.

GPS-based navigation systems have been developed to support the walking of visually impaired people. However, their use in station premises and malls presented difficulties due to radio wave interference. In such places, an indoor navigation system (IDNS) was indispensable. Recently, an IDNS using geomagnetism that did not require the installation of new infrastructure attracted our attention. It incorporated technology to detect self-position by association with a geomagnetic fingerprint (GMFP) database, which included the geomagnetic vector of the current position, stored in advance on the cloud. However, to realize navigation over an entire floor, a detailed geomagnetic map of the floor was needed, taking a lot of time and labor to measure the geomagnetic field. In this research, we proposed a novel method that limited the area of the GMFP to places above braille blocks and linked the geometric maps to braille block maps. The main features of our system were as follows: (1) Reduction of labor and time required to make the GMFP; (2) Realization of a real-time navigation system with little error in estimated position; (3) A high-resolution geomagnetic map database could be easily made by walking with a nearly fixed stride length without any specific equipment. To confirm the principal operation of our system, we made a prototype system. We then evaluated the performance of our system under various experimental conditions. Finally, we demonstrated a simple navigation system. As a result, we were able to confirm that our system could estimate self-position in real-time with little error and provide simple navigation for visually impaired people.

Named data networking (NDN) is a new and promising Internet architecture, which aims to replace the current transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP)-based Internet. The NDN internet architecture has introduced several benefits in numerous applications. An NDN-based indoor positioning and navigation system can further optimize existing localization technologies with reduced the server load and faster response time. In this study, an NDN-based approach for the existing Wi-Fi fingerprinting-based indoor positioning and navigation was investigated. Among the many features of NDN, the network-level caching can reduce the computational load and response time of the localization and navigation server. The theoretical analysis of the runtime complexity shows that the NDN's network-level caching performance is better than those of the conventional algorithms. In this paper, naming methods for different services and a server-side algorithm for handling the NDN requests are proposed. The real-world implantation and testing results show a better overall performance than that of TCP/IP. This network-level optimization for indoor positioning and navigation opens new opportunities because it can be combined with other application-level optimization techniques for more efficient indoor positioning and navigation in the future.

Because of its high time-domain resolution, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is capable of precise range measurement and has been applied in many accurate indoor positioning systems. This paper presents a practical indoor positioning and navigation system using the UWB modules we developed based on Decawave UWB chipset. In order to enhance the performance of the system in NLOS scenarios, a neural network approach is integrated. The feasibility of the combined approach is analysed and its accuracy is evaluated. The experiment results indicate that the neural network can maintain a stable accuracy no matter whether it is in an NLOS scenario and it is capable to identify the locations on two trajectories which are next to each other with very high confidence.

During the past few decades, the presence of global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) such as GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo has facilitated positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) for various outdoor applications. With the rapid increase in the number of orbiting satellites per GNSS, enhancements in the satellite-based augmentation systems (SBASs) such as EGNOS and WAAS, as well as commissioning new GNSS constellations, the PNT capabilities are maximized to reach new frontiers. Additionally, the recent developments in precise point positioning (PPP) and real time kinematic (RTK) algorithms have provided more feasibility to carrier-phase precision positioning solutions up to the third-dimensional localization. With the rapid growth of internet of things (IoT) applications, seamless navigation becomes very crucial for numerous PNT dependent applications especially in sensitive fields such as safety and industrial applications. Throughout the years, GNSSs have maintained sufficiently acceptable performance in PNT, in RTK and PPP applications however GNSS experienced major challenges in some complicated signal environments. In many scenarios, GNSS signal suffers deterioration due to multipath fading and attenuation in densely obscured environments that comprise stout obstructions. Recently, there has been a growing demand e.g. in the autonomous-things domain in adopting reliable systems that accurately estimate position, velocity and time (PVT) observables. Such demand in many applications also facilitates the retrieval of information about the six degrees of freedom (6-DOF - x, y, z, roll, pitch, and heading) movements of the target anchors. Numerous modern applications are regarded as beneficiaries of precise PNT solutions such as the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the automatic guided vehicles (AGV) and the intelligent transportation system (ITS). Hence, multi-sensor fusion technology has become very vital in seamless navigation systems owing to its complementary capabilities to GNSSs. Fusion-based positioning in multi-sensor technology comprises the use of multiple sensors measurements for further refinement in addition to the primary GNSS, which results in high precision and less erroneous localization. Inertial navigation systems (INSs) and their inertial measurement units (IMUs) are the most commonly used technologies for augmenting GNSS in multi-sensor integrated systems. In this article, we survey the most recent literature on multi-sensor GNSS technology for seamless navigation. We provide an overall perspective for the advantages, the challenges and the recent developments of the fusion-based GNSS navigation realm as well as analyze the gap between scientific advances and commercial offerings. INS/GNSS and IMU/GNSS systems have proven to be very reliable in GNSS-denied environments where satellite signal degradation is at its peak, that is why both integrated systems are very abundant in the relevant literature. In addition, the light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems are widely adopted in the literature for its capability to provide 6-DOF to mobile vehicles and autonomous robots. LiDARs are very accurate systems however they are not suitable for low-cost positioning due to the expensive initial costs. Moreover, several other techniques from the radio frequency (RF) spectrum are utilized as multi-sensor systems such as cellular networks, WiFi, ultra-wideband (UWB) and Bluetooth. The cellular-based systems are very suitable for outdoor navigation applications while WiFi-based, UWB-based and Bluetooth-based systems are efficient in indoor positioning systems (IPS). However, to achieve reliable PVT estimations in multi-sensor GNSS navigation, optimal algorithms should be developed to mitigate the estimation errors resulting from non-line-of-sight (NLOS) GNSS situations. Examples of the most commonly used algorithms for trilateration-based positioning are Kalman filters, weighted least square (WLS), particle filters (PF) and many other hybrid algorithms by mixing one or more algorithms together. In this paper, the reviewed articles under study and comparison are presented by highlighting their motivation, the methodology of implementation, the modelling utilized and the performed experiments. Then they are assessed with respect to the published results focusing on achieved accuracy, robustness and overall implementation cost-benefits as performance metrics. Our summarizing survey assesses the most promising, highly ranked and recent articles that comprise insights into the future of GNSS technology with multi-sensor fusion technique.

People generally find themselves lost while visiting a new indoor location because they are unaware of the building’s architecture, especially when it is a large one or a shopping mall. The Global Position System (GPS) does not work properly in the indoor environment because of the satellite signal attenuation. In this paper, to assist people in finding their path, a Li-Fi (Light-Fidelity) based Indoor Positioning System (IPS) is proposed. A framework is developed based on a Li-Fi LED lamp transmitter and a dongle receiver connected to an Android smartphone to decode the received sequence. The pathfinding graph-based algorithm is proceeded in a REST architecture by a Web service consulting the graph-path database both installed on a Raspberry pi 4. The proposed solution is a low cost and does not require any additional infrastructure. It is easy to implement in most indoor environments like hospitals, buildings, and campuses. A short survey of techniques and algorithms for indoor positioning and navigation with the help of smartphones is also presented.

Supporting orientation is one of the major challenges when designing pedestrian navigation systems. Especially for indoor areas, it is still an open question, which landmarks can be used to support the cognitive process of orientation. Furthermore, it has to be analyzed whether the referenced landmark type has to be adapted to different instruction types like verbal and visual displays. In order to address these questions we conducted a study with 132 participants who had to navigate different routes and give verbal instructions supplemented by drawing sketch maps. Our results show that orientation information is important in indoor areas, too. Moreover, the instruction type significantly influences the chosen orientation information. We therefore argue that it is important to incorporate orientation information in future indoor navigation systems and adapt the information based on the instruction type.

Accurate and fast indoor Location-Based Services (LBS) is very important for daily life and emergency response. Indoor map is the basis of indoor LBS. The model construction and data organization of indoor map are the key scientific problems that urgently need to be solved in the current indoor LBS application. In recent years, hybrid models have been used widely in the research of indoor map, because they can balance the limitations of single models. However, the current studies about hybrid model pay more attention to the model accuracy and modeling algorithm, while ignoring its relationship between positioning and navigation and its practicality in mobile indoor LBS applications. This paper addresses a new indoor map model, named Building Information Modeling based Positioning and Navigation (BIMPN), which is based on the entity model and the network model. The highlight of BIMPN is that it proposes a concept of Step Node (SN) to assist indoor positioning and navigation function. We developed the Mobile Indoor Positioning and Navigation System (MIPNS) to verify the practicability of BIMPN. Results indicate that the BIMPN can effectively organize the characteristics of indoor spaces and the building features, and assist indoor positioning and navigation. The BIMPN proposed in this paper can be used for the construction of indoor maps and it is suitable for mobile indoor positioning and navigation systems.

Car navigation systems have made place everywhere around the globe. Outdoor navigation systems can be widely located in almost every geographical location that has access to the internet. However, indoor navigation system is very important for the pedestrians to find out their ways in complicated indoor areas such as shopping malls, subways, universities, exhibitions, underground areas, and tunnels etc. The recent rapid expansion of Wi-Fi zones and the increase of Wi-Fi equipped smartphones have enabled transformation of this idea to the reality. This work presents university indoor navigation system designed to help students, staff, and visitors to find their desired location. The work shows promising results when using distance measuring algorithm, the Trilateration, and the ITU-R P.1238 model together using the Network Simulator 2 “NS2” for the indoor navigation.

With the invent of GPS and related technologies, outdoor navigation is simply possible with great accuracy nowadays. But we are still in need of an efficient, reliable and cheaper technology for indoor navigation. In this paper we put forward the idea of an android based application which enables efficient indoor navigation and tracks the exact location of people inside large buildings. Though different technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth, RFID e.t.c, are available for indoor navigation and location tracking, the main problem is that the implementation and maintenance costs are very high. Also, the change in climatic condition affects the working and degrades its performance. In this work, we incorporate the innovative idea of magnetic field identification technology which uses the naturally occurring magnetic fields inside the concrete buildings with simplified magnetic map matching algorithm and the idea from Route boxer algorithm for effective indoor positioning and navigation. A Smart phone with magnetic field sensor and accelerometer enables the application to provide the best indoor navigation facility to the end users.

People who are Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) have one goal in common: navigate through unfamiliar indoor environments without the intervention of a human guide. The number of blind people in the world is not accurately known at the present, however, based on the 2010 Global Data on Visual Impairments, World Health Organization, approximately 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision, 90% in developing countries, with 82% of blind people aged 50 and above. Available extrapolated statistics about blindness in some countries in the Middle East show ∼102,618 in Iraq, ∼5,358 in Gaza strip, ∼22,692 in Jordan, ∼9,129 in Kuwait, ∼104,321 in Saudi Arabia, and ∼10,207 in the United Arab Emirates. These statistics reveal the importance of developing a useful, accurate, and easy to use navigation system to help this large population of disabled people in their everyday lives. Various commercial products are available to navigate BVI people in outdoor environments based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) where the receiver must has a clear view of the sky. Indoor geo-location, on the other hand, is much more challenging because objects surrounding the user can block or interfere with the GPS signal.In this paper, we present a centralized wireless indoor navigation system to aid the BVI. The system is designed not only to accurately locate, track, and navigate the user, but to also find the safest travel path and easily communicate with the BVI. A centralized approach is adopted because of the lack of research in this area. Some proposed navigation systems require users to inconveniently carry heavy navigation devices; some require administrators to install a complex network of sensors throughout a building; and others are simply impractical in practice. The system consists of four major components: 1) Wireless Positioning Subsystem, 2) Visual Indoor Modeling Interface, 3) Guidance and Navigation Subsystem, and 4) Path-Finding Subsystem. The system is designed not only to accurately locate, track, and navigate the user, but to also find the safest travel path and easily communicate with the BVI.A significant part of the navigation system is the virtual modeling of the building and the design of the path-finding algorithms, which will be the main focus of this research. Ultimately, the proposed system provides the design and building blocks for a fully functional package that can be used to build a complete centralized indoor navigation system, from creating the virtual models for buildings to tracking and interacting with BVI users over the network.

E-navigation poses significant challenges for shipping. The analysis of the legal norms in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) and court decisions supports the use of information technology on the bridge for the purpose of improving navigational safety. However, the current regulatory and standardisation requirements hamper the introduction of new information streams in navigational systems and remove the incentives for investment in navigation technology. The liability arising from navigational failures will remain on the employer of the crew irrespective of how the additional navigational information is provided to the navigational systems. The shipowner's liability may depend on the way information streams are provided to the ship only within the context of the Civil Liability Convention (CLC) 1992 and other similar pollution conventions where the characterisation of the navigational system as a navigational aid or an aid to navigation may decide the issue of liability. Research on the legal background of these terms underlines the need for a clear distinction between the two terms to be made. An interpretation is proposed which ensures that the CLC liability exception operates in accordance with the underlying legal requirements.

The development of indoor navigation systems should utilize advanced teleinformation, geoinformation and cartographical knowledge. The authors analyzed available specifications of prototypes of indoor navigation systems and drew conclusions about how to enhance the use of cartographical methods in the whole process of designing a new system. The analysis proves that cartographical methodology is still very limited in the process of designing indoor navigation systems. Researchers focus mainly on improving the positioning accuracy, and they often neglect the issue of developing spatial databases and the rules of their effective visualization. The process of designing indoor navigation systems, just like in the case of outdoor navigation systems, consists of a number of tasks that can be supported by the theory and practice of cartography. This article presents the issues of determination of spatial database model appropriate for an indoor system, improvement of accuracy of positioning algorithms utilizing spatial data and methodology of generating graphical and voice directions for indoor navigation. In the authors’ opinion, the discussed cartographical methods and techniques may considerably enhance indoor navigation systems and accelerate their development. The fundamental knowledge of cartographical methods should be within the interest of designers of these systems. At present the first attempts in this field may be observed, although they are still not mature and complex