Optimizing Time-of-Arrival Localization Solutions for Challenging Industrial Environments

Since Global Positioning System technologies cannot be used indoors, a significant amount of research focuses on developing radio-frequency-based alternatives for indoor localization. Unfortunately, most of the suggested solutions for indoor localization consist of theoretical work or have been evaluated in non-industrial environments, typically office spaces. To evaluate the influence of industrial environments on localization accuracy, in this paper, a time-of-arrival (ToA) approach was used to determine the stationary locations of a robot inside the w-iLab.t II testbed, an open industrial-like environment containing several metal obstacles. The ToA method utilizes the measured propagation time of a radio wave between a sender and receiver to estimate their corresponding distance. This paper evaluates several industrial-related deployment aspects that influence location accuracy and describes how their negative impact can be reduced, resulting in an almost 50% accuracy improvement in industrial environments.