Indoor WiFi-Beacon Dataset Construction Using Autonomous Low-Cost Robot for 3D Location Estimation

Abstract

Datasets used for artificial-neural-network and machine-learning applications play a vital role in the research and application of such techniques in solving real-life problems. The construction and availability of large datasets to be used in the off-line phase of ANN training is usually a crucial and time-consuming step towards system construction. In this work, a framework for autonomous construction of a diverse, extensive, and open dataset* with built-in redundancy is demonstrated. As part of the framework, a low-cost robot using off-the-shelf components is built that constructs the dataset autonomously. The robot includes a controller network with multiple WiFi-transceiver nodes for collecting received-signal-strength indicators (RSSIs) at various elevation points throughout the building. All nodes are configured with direct internet access to streamline the data collection towards an online database that is constructed as part of this framework. Preliminary validation and analysis of the dataset are discussed, and an exploration of the application domain of the dataset is carried out. Moreover, this paper investigates the effect of the height of the hand-held mobile WiFi antenna attached to the robot on the received power strength of the WiFi signal.