APT: Accurate outdoor pedestrian tracking with smartphones

Abstract

This paper presents APT, a localization system for outdoor pedestrians with smartphones. APT performs better than the built-in GPS module of the smartphone in terms of accuracy. This is achieved by introducing a robust dead reckoning algorithm and an error-tolerant algorithm for map matching. When the user is walking with the smartphone, the dead reckoning algorithm monitors steps and walking direction in real time. It then reports new steps and turns to the map-matching algorithm. Based on updated information, this algorithm adjusts the user's location on a map in an error-tolerant manner. If location ambiguity among several routes occurs after adjustments, the GPS module is queried to help eliminate this ambiguity. Evaluations in practice show that the error of our system is less than 1/2 that of GPS.