Rapid Deployment of Ultra-Wideband Indoor Positioning System

Abstract

With the emergence of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to consumer levels, it is possible to utilize a mobile device for indoor applications such as positioning systems on the Internet of Things (IoT). An automatic configuration of UWB nodes is designed to initiate and form a localized coordinate system while minimizing setup time. We also overcome difficulties of UWB configuration on single-way broadcast, the limit of usage, and positioning uncertainty. A proposed design on the coordination formulation makes it possible to have arbitrary numbers of anchors for the setup. A numerical method is thoroughly demonstrated together with optimization of positioning error due to practical usage. The proposed one-time setup time is within 1 minute, which is by far shorter than the manual setup and enables a strong potential for IoT applications.