An ultra wideband positioning system enhanced by a short multipath mitigation technique

Abstract

In this paper an approach for high precision local positioning radar using an ultra wideband technique is presented. The concept is based on the standard FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) radar principle combined with short pulses to fulfill the emission limits given by the official regulatory authorities. In this way, a high accuracy in dense multipath indoor environments can be achieved, ideally suited for 1D, 2D and 3D localization. A prototype was built which operates at a center frequency of 7.5 GHz utilizing a bandwidth of 1 GHz. With the setup presented in this paper the distance between two wireless units can be measured achieving a standard deviation down to 6 mm. Additionally, we studied the effects of short multipath propagation and present simulation results for an applicable mitigation technique.