An Experimental Platform for an Indoor Location and Tracking System

In this paper, an experimental platform for indoor location and tracking using ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio signals is presented and its performance measured. The platform has been developed entirely using standard electronic components that are commercially available. As principal goal, the experimental platform has been designed to allow a rapid performance evaluation for various system architectures and signal processing algorithms. Hence, the platform is as versatile as possible while remaining optimized for accurate location estimation. To meet these targets, the UWB receivers are implemented using a fast analog to digital converter (ADC) and a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The ADC acquires directly the received radio frequency signal. The FPGA performs the required signal processing in real time and estimates the time of arrivals (TOAs) of the received pulses. The TOAs are transferred to a personal computer (PC), where the location of the transmitter is calculated. After the description of the hardware and the algorithms, the outcomes of a measurement campaign in a laboratory environment and the accuracy of the location system are presented.