Java implementation of localization and tracking application based on HDR-UWB platform

Abstract

In recent years extensive research was carried out in order to develop applications for the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology and to resolve the practical challenges in implementing an efficient UWB communication system utilizing the UWB impulse radio for precision localization. ToA (Time of Arrival) or TDoA (Time Difference of Arrival) of ranging frame are widely used because ToA and TDoA provide high accuracy due to the high time resolution with high bandwidth of IR-UWB (Impulse Radio - UWB) signal. HDR-UWB (High Data Rate -UWB) uses MB-OFDM (Multi Band - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) to transmit signals, which can reach a data rate of 200 Mbit/s. In this paper a Java implementation of an active LT (Localization and Tracking) method based on a HDR-UWB platform is investigated. The hardware is composed of three UWB anchors, one UWB tag and one UWB location coordinator, which is connected to a PC (Personal Computer) or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). The Java program, which is hosted on the PC or PDA, is used to instruct the UWB coordinator to send and receive the UWB ranging frame and localize the tag. ToA is used as a ranging parameter in this work to measure the distance between the used UWB anchors and the UWB tag. The most important aspect is to reduce the jitter of ToA caused by CPU processing and the clock drift between UWB anchors and UWB tag. In this paper a 3-way ranging mechanism to minimize the clock drift is deployed. In addition the use of the JPCAP (Java Package for CAPturing) library in Java reduces the jitter of the ToA.