A Real-Time UWB Location and Tracking System Based on TWR-TDOA Estimation and a Simplified MPGA Layout Optimization

Abstract

This article designs and implements a 3D moving target positioning and tracking system by using ultrawideband (UWB) technology. The result of the two-way ranging by the time difference of arrival (TWR-TDOA) positioning algorithm is adopted to result in a new resolution that is to resolve the hyperbolic equations. The proposed algorithm is applied to outdoor and indoor scenarios. To minimize the effect of the sensor layout, this article proposes a simplified multi-population genetic algorithm (MPGA) to obtain the optimum distribution of anchors, which can rapidly reduce the number of search iterations. To resolve the low stability of the TDOA algorithm in outdoor and indoor scenarios, the Kalman filter algorithm is utilized to improve the stability and positioning accuracy of this system and a good simulation effect is achieved. The test results show that the system’s positioning error is far less than that of using other methods. The whole system has a feature of high precision, high stability, low complexity, and low cost.