Collaborative Indoor Positioning Systems: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Research and development in Collaborative Indoor Positioning Systems (CIPSs) is growing steadily due to their potential to improve on the performance of their non-collaborative counterparts. In contrast to the outdoors scenario, where Global Navigation Satellite System is widely adopted, in (collaborative) indoor positioning systems a large variety of technologies, techniques, and methods is being used. Moreover, the diversity of evaluation procedures and scenarios hinders a direct comparison. This paper presents a systematic review that gives a general view of the current CIPSs. A total of 84 works, published between 2006 and 2020, have been identified. These articles were analyzed and classified according to the described system’s architecture, infrastructure, technologies, techniques, methods, and evaluation. The results indicate a growing interest in collaborative positioning, and the trend tend to be towards the use of distributed architectures and infrastructure-less systems. Moreover, the most used technologies to determine the collaborative positioning between users are wireless communication technologies (Wi-Fi, Ultra-WideBand, and Bluetooth). The predominant collaborative positioning techniques are Received Signal Strength Indication, Fingerprinting, and Time of Arrival/Flight, and the collaborative methods are particle filters, Belief Propagation, Extended Kalman Filter, and Least Squares. Simulations are used as the main evaluation procedure. On the basis of the analysis and results, several promising future research avenues and gaps in research were identified.

D2D-Based Cooperative Positioning Paradigm for Future Wireless Systems: A Survey

“…Infrastructurebased Indoor Positioning System (IIPS) (is usually referred to as those systems that need the environment to be sensed to have indoor positioning (e.g., deploying BLE beacons, ultrasound receivers, etc.) Alternatively, Infrastructure-less Indoor Positioning is known as device-based positioning, wherein no additional infrastructure is required to operate, e.g., an indoor positioning system based on inertial measurements or magnetic field [17]. Outdoor positioning capabilities require regional or even global coverage compared to indoor environments, which are limited in size to rooms and buildings.…”

“…The main focus is the algorithm description and assessment rather than its practical implementation, which can be server-based or on-device. In contrast, for cooperative/collaborative systems, the trends suggest that the decentralized approach is the most popular in the recent few years [17].…”

Smartphone Distance Estimation Based on RSSI-Fuzzy Classification Approach

“…The combination of BLE with RSSI measurements for distance estimation has played a relevant role in the last few years. This approach is mainly used in deployments where commercial wearable devices are involved [1]- [4], as its easy implementation on wearable devices and low energy consumption are distinctive advantages [2], [5]. On the downside, the BLE signals' propagation behaviour is highly affected by the environment features, even in LOS conditions.…”

“…The study and implementation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless signals -transmitted by commercial wearable devices-together with the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) positioning approaches for positioning and tracking people, and sensing human social interaction in indoor environments has grown in the last few years [1]- [4]. Their widespread use and success is mainly due to their ubiquity in wearable devices, straightforward implementation and the energy efficiency of BLE [2], [5].…”

Location measurement of an object using radio networks for Industry 4.0 applications

“…There are the following methods for determining the location and measuring the coordinates of an object in radio networks [9][10][11]:…”