TELK OMNIKA T elecommunication, Computing, Electr onics and Contr ol V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021, pp. 51 62 ISSN: 1693-6930, accredited First Grade by K emenristekdikti, No: 21/E/KPT/2018 DOI: 10.12928/TELK OMNIKA.v19i1.16275 r 51 Smartphone indoor positioning based on enhanced BLE beacon multi-lateration Ngoc-Son Duong, Thai-Mai Dinh Thi F aculty of Electronics and T elecommunications, VNU Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology , V ietnam National Uni v ersity , Hanoi, V ietnam Article Inf o Article history: Recei v ed Apr 7, 2020 Re vised Aug 4, 2020 Accepted Sep 5, 2020 K eyw ords: BLE iBeacon Bluetooth lo w ener gy Indoor positioning Least square estimation T rilateration ABSTRA CT In this paper , we introduce a smartphone indoor positioning method using bluetooth lo w ener gy (BLE) beacon multi lateration. At first, based on si gnal strength analysis, we construct a distance calculation model for BLE beacons. Then, with the aims to impro v e positioning accurac y , we propose an impro v ed lateral method (range-based method) which is applied for 4 nearby beacons. The method is intended to design a real-time system for some services such as emer genc y assistance, personal localiza- tion and tracking, location-based adv ertising and mark eting, etc. Experimental results sho w that the proposed method achie v es high accurac y when compared with the state of the art lateral methods such as geometry-based (con v entional trilateration), least square estimation-based (LSE-based) and weighted LSE-based. This is an open access article under the CC BY -SA license . Corresponding A uthor: Thai-Mai Dinh Thi F aculty of Electronics and T elecommunications VNU Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology , V ietnam National Uni v ersity G2 Building, 144 Xuan Thuy Str ., Cau Giay Dist., Hanoi, V ietnam Email: dttmai@vnu.edu.vn 1. INTR ODUCTION No w adays, in lar ge cities, human acti vi ties tend to shift from outdoor to indoor en vironments. This has led to a gro wing need for services related to the indoor en vironment, such as location-based services (LBSs) and social netw orking services (SNSs). Location accurac y is a measure of service quality . GPS has done this well for outdoor en vironments. Ho we v er , due to the obstruction of b uilding materials, GPS signals can not w ork well in indoor en vironments. Therefore, man y technologies are utilized to deplo y indoor positioning sys- tems (IPS) such as W iFi [1, 2], radio frequenc y identification (RFID) [3], Zigbee [4], ultra-wideband (UWB) [5] and camera-based (photo-based) [6]. T o o v ercome the limitations of pre vious technologies, a bluetooth lo w ener gy (BLE) based technology called iBeacon w as introduced as an appropriate solution for IPS requirements due to the adv antages such as lo w ener gy consumption, wide-co v erage, easy deplo yment, and potential high ac- curac y . W e can use iBeacon technology to b uild an indoor positioning system that uses recei v ed signal strength (RSS) to estimate user location. There are tw o kinds of recei v ed signal strength inde x (RSSI) based technique: fingerprinting [7] and range-based method [8] (as kno wn as lateral or lateration method). In the localization problem, the range-based method utilizes an estimated distance from the path-loss model to estimate the user’ s position. Meanwhile, Fingerprinting relies on map surv e y steps to b uild an radio signal strength (RSS) database of an interested area. Then, the position decision is made based on online signals and of fline database using a matching algorithm. Some recent studies ha v e chosen fingerprint as the main approach [9–12]. Others choose J ournal homepage: http://journal.uad.ac.id/inde x.php/TELK OMNIKA Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
52 r ISSN: 1693-6930 range-based as their main approach [13–15]. Looking at the number of current research, we can see that fingerpr inting seems to be more popular than range-based methods. Ho we v er , to achie v e high accurac y , the fingerprinting method requires data collec- tion for man y reference points. This task tak es much time and is unfeasible to practical implementation. In deplo yment, it seems f air to say that range-based methods are more feasible than fingerprinting. Range-based methods can help implement an indoor positioning system without additional requirements such as map surv e y or reb uild the database. Ho we v er , range-methods ha v e their disadv antages as well. Their problem is distance estimation, which directly af fects the accurac y of the estimat ed position. Theoretically , we all kno w the dis- tance v aries according to the log arithmic function. But, it is not easy to calculate the distance correctly due to the ef fects of f ading, small-scale, and human absorption. T o cope with thi s problem, we propose an impro v ed me thod for a range-based method applied to BLE signals and indoor en vironments. W e consider that, at a certain RSS le v el, the estimation of the distance between the phone and the BLE beacon is relati v ely accurate. So, such beacons are called reliable beacons. Therefore, we obtain some reliable circles with the center of the reliable beacons and the radius of the estimated distance from the mobile de vice. Then the returned position must be in such circles. Interv ention by geometric method, we mo v e the estimated position of con v entional trilateration to a position that belongs t o the circles. In order to get higher accurac y , we e xploit the information of a lar ge number of beacons. In this study , we applied the proposed method for four beacons simultaneously . Each cluster of three beacons will estimate the phone’ s position based on T rilateration combined with reliable circles. Then the final position will be determined by the a v erage of possible positions. Experiments were carried out in the real w orld, and the res ults sho wed that the proposed method outperformed e xisting con v entional methods. In the ne xt part, the T rilateration method and its e n c ou nt ered problem, are briefly presented in section 2. Section 3 describes our proposed method, including an impro v ed geometry-based method for T rilateration and multiple BLE beacon usage. Section 4 pro vides system parameters and e xperimental results. Ultimately , section 5 concludes this paper . 2. RESEARCH METHOD 2.1. T rilateration In the global positioning system, trilateration [16, 17] (short for con v entional trilateration) is a tradi- tional method for determining the location of recei v er equipment on earth. The position of the object can be obtained by calculating the distance from the satellites. W e can e xploit this concept for indoor localization by scaling do wn the trilateration concept used for global positioning system (GPS). In our study , trilateration, as illustrated in Figure 1, is defined as a method to obtain the position of an object or people under the influence of the indoor en vironment based on RSS information of three beacons. Recei v ed signal strengths from these beacons are calculated via the follo wing formula [18]: ( d ) = ( d 0 ) 10 log d d 0 (1) whereas, ( d ) and ( d 0 ) are RSSIs at Euclidean distance d and reference distance d 0 , respecti v ely (in dBm). d 0 is usually chosen equal to one meter for the indoor en vironment and represents the path loss e xponent. The distance from the smart phone to the i -th beacon can be e xpressed as: d i = d 0 10 ( d 0 ) ( d i ) 10 (2) In order to calculate the smart phone position, the coordinates of BLE beacons on the map must be kno wn in adv ance. Assume that ( x i ; y i ) is the coordinates of i th beacon on the map. The equation for each beacon re gion is represented by ( z = 0 ): ( x x i ) 2 + ( y y i ) 2 = d 2 i ; i = f 1 ; 2 ; 3 g (3) (3) is equi v alent to: x 2 2 xx i + x 2 i + y 2 2 y y i + y 2 i d 2 i = 0 (4) TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control, V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021 : 51 62 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control r 53 Let a i = 2 x i , b i = 2 y i , c i = x 2 i + y 2 i d 2 i , then (4) is re written as: x 2 + y 2 + a i x + b i y + c i = 0 (5) The position of a track ed object can be estimated by: ^ x = ( c 2 c 1 )( b 2 b 3 ) ( c 3 c 2 )( b 1 b 2 ) ( a 1 a 2 )( b 2 b 3 ) ( a 2 a 3 )( b 1 b 2 ) (6) ^ y = ( a 2 a 1 )( c 3 c 2 ) ( c 2 c 1 )( a 2 a 3 ) ( a 1 a 2 )( b 2 b 3 ) ( a 2 a 3 )( b 1 b 2 ) (7) B1 B 2 B 3 B 1 B2 B 3 ( b) ( c) B1 B 2 B 3 ( a) Figure 1. T rilateration method; (a) ideal condition, 3 circles intersect at one point, (b) and (c) imperfect condition, 3 circles do not intersect at one point 2.2. Distance estimation Distance estimation plays a vital role in internet of things (IoT) applications. In this study , the accurac y of distance estimation has a high impact on reck oning trilateration position. The more accurate the con v ersion from RSSI to distance is, the more precise trilateration’ s estimated position is. Unfortunately , for BLE signals, it is not easy to calculate true distance through the log-distance path loss model. Man y f actors af fect the BLE signal in the indoor en vironment, such as the material of indoor structures, body-blocking. Intending to construct a real-time indoor positioning system, we consider humans’ presence as a high-impact f actor . The human body consists of 70% w ater; therefore, this is a strong attenuation f actor at a frequenc y of 2.4 GHz. The attenuation of the BLE signal caused by humans body (in dBm) is estimated by [19, 20]: PL H = 30 + 10 log (2 w n ) (8) where w and n are body weight and number of detected person in the area. As sho wn in Figure 2, we can see a significant dif ference when the phone is block ed by the user body . Thus, use (2) with a fix ed to estimate the distance no longer matches the BLE signal. T o look closely at the problem, we conducted some e xperiments to analyze the RSSI atte nu a tion of the BLE signal in 2 cases: line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) (body-blocking). Figure 3 sho ws that whene v er we recei v e the signal that has an RSS v alue lar ger than -70 dBm, we can use LOS curv e line confidently to calculate the distance from the smartphone to the beacon. F or our empirical data, LOS curv e line is represented by a log arithmic trendline [21], i.e.: = 10 : 18 ln( d ) 59 : 533 (dBm) (9) where, is RSSI at distance d . At lo wer RSSI le v els, a RSS v alue can correspond to man y distances. F or e xample, in our e xperimental en vironment, -75 dBm can corresponds to either 3 m (LOS) or 4.5 m (NLOS) while the smartphone does not kno w what type of condition it is confronting. So, it is considered as an unre- liable situation. In this case, the distance is estimated by an a v erage fitted curv e between LOS and NLOS, i.e: = 8 : 621 ln( d ) 64 : 321 . Smartphone indoor positioning based on enhanced BLE beacon... (Ngoc-Son Duong) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
54 r ISSN: 1693-6930 2.3. RSSI filtering As precise distance estimation results in proper T rilateration localization, it w ould be better to use some RSS filtration. F or RSS, noise is often kno wn for short-te rm f ading [22], which is caused by surrounding pedestrians. RSS can fluctuate sharply in a short period. T o reduce its impact, we apply Kalman filter [23] for RSS model: ( k = k 1 z k = k + v k (10) herein, we consider there is no noise in the process and v k denotes measurement noise of RSS observ ation z k which is introduced as pedestrian’ s mo v ement. The detailed process of the Kalman filter algorithm is sho wn in Algorithm 1. Figure 2. Attenuation of recei v ed signal strength at 2 m of distance. 0 corresponds to the situation that the user stands and holds the phone the opposite side to the beacon (LOS). 180 corresponds to the case that the user turns a w ay from the beacon (non-LOS) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Distance (m) -85 -80 -75 -70 -65 -60 RSSI (dBm) LOS condition NLOS condition Fitted curve of LOS condition Fitted curve of NLOS condition Figure 3. RSSI v aries by distance in 2 cases: LOS and NLOS at transmitting po wer of 0 dBm. Note that, this is the empirical data and needs to be calibrated with another en vironment TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control, V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021 : 51 62 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control r 55 Algorithm 1: Kalman Filter Algorithm Initialize: State mean: 0 = z 0 State co v ariance: 0 = 1 1. Predict state: ^ k = ^ k 1 2. Predict state co v ariance: ^ k = k 1 3. Calculate Kalman filter g ain: K k = k ( k + R ) 1 4. Update state: ^ k = ^ k + K k ( z k ^ k ) 5. Update state co v ariance: k = (1 K k ) k 3. ENHANCED BLE BEA CON MUL TI-LA TERA TION 3.1. Enhanced trilateration f or BLE signal Based on the abo v e signal analysis, whene v er the signal strength recei v ed from the beacon is h i gher than -70 dBm, the relati v e position of the phone to the beacon is lik ely to be LOS. F or simplicity , we call the beacon that satisfies the condition with the RSSI returned on the phone higher than -70 dBm as rLOS beacon and i s denoted by B . (abbre viation for reliable LOS beacon). Then, the estimated distance of rLOS beacon from (9) is considered the most reliable. Moreo v er , the position is estimated by trilater ation completely depends on the radius of three circles. In theory , if the distance from the beacons to the smartphone is absolutely correct, the position returned from t rilateration must be the intersection of the three circles. Let B . be the coordinates of rLOS beacon, T be the coordinates returned by trilateration and P is the position calculated by the proposed method. Case 1: There is no presence of rLOS beacon. In this case, there will not be an y impro v ement, we simply apply (6), (7) to estimate the user position. Case 2: Only one rLOS beacon is a v ailable. S ince there is only one rLOS beacon, that means we ha v e only one trusted circle in total of three, called rLOS circle. Therefore, the estimated T rilateration-based position should be returned on this circle. Then, P is defined as the intersection of infinite line   ! B . T and a rLOS circle which has radius of d . , centered at B . and is denoted by ( B . ; d . ) . Figure 4 is the visual vie w of the proposed method. P must satisfy the follo wing conditions: ( P =   ! B . T \ ( B . ; d . ) PT is minimum (11) Estimated position of  the  proposed method Estimated position of  Trilateration rLOS beacon (a) (b) rLOS circle B 1 B 2 B 3 P T B 1 T P B 2 B 3 . . Figure 4. Position estimation in Case 2 Case 3: T w o rLOS beacons e xist. Let tw o circles of radii d . 1 and d . 2 and centered at B . 1 and B . 2 intersect at one or tw o point. Figure 5 illustrates ho w we estimate the user position. In this case, P must satisfy the follo wing conditions: ( P = T 2 i =1 ( B . i ; d . i ) PT is minimum (12) In addition, we consider the case of tw o rLOS circle does not intersect as a case is described in Figure 4 where the position is decided by a smaller rLOS circle. Because iBeacon is uniformly distrib uted, the smartphone rarely gets the RSS abo v e -70 dBm simultaneously from three dif ferent beacons due to the body’ s obstruction; therefore, there is no Case 4 for three rLOS beacons. Smartphone indoor positioning based on enhanced BLE beacon... (Ngoc-Son Duong) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
56 r ISSN: 1693-6930 Estimated position of   the  proposed method Estimated position of  Trilateration (a) rLOS  beacon (b) rLOS  circle B 1 B 2 B 3 P T P T B 1 B 2 B 3 . . . . Figure 5. Position estimation in Case 3 3.2. Multi BLE iBeacon lateration F or achie ving high accurac y , we use information from four beacons simultaneously . Accordingly , when applying T rilateration for four beacons, we ha v e C (4 ; 3) w ays to choose a cluster of three beacons from a set of four ones where commutation is not allo wed. In detail, at first, we collect signals from all beacons on the map. Then arrange them in an array of four components: B = [ B 1 ; B 2 ; B 3 ; B 4 ] (13) in which, B i represents i th beacon object in descending order of RSSI. In programming, B i is a tuple, which is represented in the form: B i = [( x i ; y i ); i ; d i ] , where, ( x i ; y i ) is the coordinates in tw o dimensions space, i and d i are RSSI and distance from the smartphone to that beacon, respecti v ely . Let T ( ) be the con v entional T rilateration function and P ( ) be the function used to estimate the position according to the proposed method. If we ha v e tw o rLOS beacons, four possible positions are calculated by: 8 > > > < > > > : ^ P 1 = P ( B 1 ; B 2 ; B 3 ) ^ P 2 = P ( B 1 ; B 2 ; B 4 ) ^ P 3 = P ( B 1 ; B 3 ; B 4 ) ^ P 4 = P ( B 2 ; B 3 ; B 4 ) (14) In case we onl y ha v e a rLOS beacon ( B 1 is the rLOS beacon object), four possible positions are calculated by: 8 > > > < > > > : ^ P 1 = P ( B 1 ; B 2 ; B 3 ) ^ P 2 = P ( B 1 ; B 2 ; B 4 ) ^ P 3 = P ( B 1 ; B 3 ; B 4 ) ^ P 4 = T ( B 2 ; B 3 ; B 4 ) (15) In the absence of an y rLOS beacon, the entire P ( ) function in (15) is replaced by the T ( ) function. The final position is estimated by: P = ( ^ P 1 + ^ P 2 + ^ P 3 + ^ P 4 4 for Case 1, Case 3 3 ^ P 1 +3 ^ P 2 +3 ^ P 3 + ^ P 4 10 for Case 2 (16) Herein, the P ( ) function i s considered to be more reliable than the T ( ) function. Hence, the position that returned by the P ( ) function should be assigned with a higher weight. It is also possible if we u s e T rilateration for a lar ger number of beacons. F or e xample, with v e beacons, we ha v e to calculate C (5 ; 3) = 10 operations instead of C (4 ; 3) = 4 . Ho we v er , this increases the computational cost. Besides, it requires a bigger number of beacons, which leads to an increase in deplo yment costs. Therefore, choosing to use the four beacons is reasonable. 4. EV ALU A TION 4.1. Experiment setup The e xperiment w as e x ecuted on the 1st floor of G2 b uilding, Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnol- ogy , VNU. The testbed is typically open with some decorati v e trees, tw os big columns, and occasionally has the TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control, V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021 : 51 62 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control r 57 appearance of pedestrians. W e deplo y four beacons in an area of 90 m 2 , and the shortest distance between tw o beacons is 6 meters. The layout of the floor plan and the interested area are sho wn in Figure 6. Beacons are set according to the strate gy outlined in [24] at the height of 150 cm (equi v alent to the height of user equipment) with the same technical configuration. Detailed s p e cifications of the system are gi v en in T able 1. The phone is held close to the body and in a parallel position to the horizontal plane. The proposed method is designed for discrete positioning and applied to e x ecute multiple measurements. W e wrote a measurement softw are with the help of se v eral a v ailable frame w orks, i.e: Cor eLocation [25], Cor eGr aphic [26]. The collected data is sent via email and we then use it to plot the figures using MA TLAB. T able 1. System parameters De vice iPhone SE Operation System iOS 12.2 Beacon 4 Proximity Estimote Beacon Bluetooh Interf ace BLE v5.0/2.4 GHz Adv ertising Interv al 100 ms Broadcasting Po wer 0 dBm Broadcasting Range 50 m P. 1 0 3 NHÀ G 2 B P. 1 0 5 8.1  m P. 1 0 7 P. 1 0 2 P H ÒN G T H Í  N GH I NG UY N V Ă ĐẠ O 45  m 2 6.0  m   P H ÒN G H C NV CL 90  m 2 12  m 7.5  m  P H ÒN T N 18  m 2  P H ÒN MU L T I MED I A T RUN G  T ÂM   Y T Í N H PH Ò N G  MÁ Y CH P H ÒN CH  GI NG 18  m 2 P. 1 0 4  P H ÒN K H O 10  m 2 TR ƯỜ NG   ĐẠ I H KI NH  T Up Up P. 1 0 6 P H ÒN G H C NV CL 78  m 2 Up K K K K KI NH KI NH KI NH IN H T T T T TR Ư TR Ư TR Ư TR ƯỜ ƯỜ ƯỜ ƯỜ N N N N NG   Đ NG   Đ NG   Đ NG   Đ Đ Đ Đ Đ H H H H C C C C C WC Na m WC N Up O x y N E S W T e s t  p o in (1 4 ;     9. 6 ) St ar t  poi n t   (6;8) (8 ;  1 1 .6) (1 4 ;  1 1 .6) (1 1 ;  6) (1 5 . 6;  6) Figure 6. Layout of the e xperiment area 4.2. Experiment r esults 4.2.1. Distance estimation Firstly , we w ant to e v aluate the accurac y in estimating the distance from the beacon to the user de vice . As mentioned abo v e, the distance estimation strate gy is applied to tw o dif ferent RSSI ranges. If RSSI is higher than -70 dBm, the (9) will be used. In contrast, if RSSI is less than or equal to -70 dBm, the distance is calculated by the a v erage between LOS and NLOS. W e measure RSS v alue at dif ferent distances and directions that change from 1 to 10 m. Each position is 1 m apart, and we collect 100 RSSI samples for each one. The result, including the a v erage estimated distance and v ariance, are gi v en in T able 2. As the results are sho wn in T able 2, at distances of 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m, the estimated dis tances are entirely accurate. The cause of this result is, at those distances, the RSS le v el i s almost higher than -70 dBm, then the distance is estimated by (9). Since the equation for (9) changes slo wly in this RSSI range, the v ariance is not too much. F or distances greater than 3 m, the RSS v aries considerably between LOS and NLOS and is usually less than -70 dBm. Thus, the distance is estimated by the a v erage model. Consequently , the errors, as well as the v ariance in these cases, are high. Smartphone indoor positioning based on enhanced BLE beacon... (Ngoc-Son Duong) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
58 r ISSN: 1693-6930 T able 2. Distance estimation T rue Distance (m) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A vg. Estimated Distance (m) 1.08 1.91 3.12 3.76 5.56 7.25 8.3 8.88 10.82 12.23 V ariance 0.12 0.21 0.3 0.74 1.23 1.73 1.96 2.08 2.25 4.23 4.2.2. Impact of Kalman filter In Figure 7, the red line represents nature RSS at a distance of 2.5 m under LOS condition, and the blue line re presents filtered RSS using the Kalman filter . At some time steps, the red line sharply attenuated due to the presence of pedestrians . W e easily see the Kalman filt er some what reduced the impact of the RSS fluctuations in the blue line. Figure 8 depicts the estimated position in the case abo v e. When not using the Kalman filter , the estimated positions sho w a lar ge dispersion. After filtering, estimated positions sho w an opposite trend. The cause of this result is the determination of whether a beacon is under rLOS condition or not. In sensiti v e cases (RSS 70 dBm), Kalman filter helps to reduce about 37% of the v ariance. Figure 7. Comparison of ra w RSS and KF-filtered RSS 10 12 14 16 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 Nature Position True Position 10 12 14 16 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 Filtered Position True Position Figure 8. The estimated position is thanks to using Kalman filter 4.2.3. Ov erall perf ormance The proposed method is v erified via the e xperiment to see ho w ef fecti v e it is. Distance errors are used to e v aluate the accurac y of the system. W e define location error e as the distance between the estimated position ( x est ; y est ) and the actual position ( x; y ) , i.e: e = p ( x x est ) 2 + ( y y est ) 2 (17) TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control, V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021 : 51 62 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control r 59 W e c h oos e three other methods to compare with proposed method, i.e: con v entional trilateration, least square estimation and weighted least squares estimation [27]. T able 3 specifies the parameters used in the e xperiments. T able 3. Experiment parameter Apply for ... beacons Distance estimati on Kalman filter T rilateration 3 A vg. Model Y es LS 4 A vg. Model Y es WLS 4 A vg. Model Y es Proposed Method 4 LOS and A vg. Model Y es a. Accurac y of the proposed method First of all, we w ant to in v estig ate the a v erage error for each site in the re gion of interest. The e x- periment w as carried out on the zigzag route (as sho wn in Figure 6) at 80 dif ferent points on the map. Error distrib ution is sho wn in Figure 9. W e can recognize that errors of positions that lie in the parallelogram of four beacons are lo wer than others that li e outside this re gion. The a v erage error in thi s area is about 1.7 m. Especially , the positions with coordinates (8.4; 11.2), (14; 11.2), (11; 8) and (15.6, 18) ha v e ne gligible errors. The reason for this result is that these positions are located in front of beacons where the distance is v ery close. Consequently , when the user stands at these points, the estimated position will be treated with another polic y , as desc ribed in section 3.1. In contrast, edge areas ha v e poor accurac y because phones and iBeacon are often under an unreliable situation. At both ends of the e xperiment area, the error may reach more than 4 m. 18 17.2 16.4 15.6 14.8 14 13.2 0 1 X 12.4 2 11.6 3 Avg. Localization Error (m) 8 4 10.8 5 8.8 10 Y 9.2 9.6 8.4 10.4 7.6 11.2 6.8 6 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 Figure 9. Error distrib ution of proposed method on the testbed b . Positioning accurac y in dif ferent directions Figure 10 describes the accurac y of the algorithms in four directions at a fix ed position, say , (14; 9.6). When the heading of the user’ s de vice is the North, since none of the beacon w as disco v ered is under rLOS condition, the accurac y of the proposed method is not much better than the other algorithms. When users point their phone to w ards the East, South, or W est, a beacon at the coordinate of (14; 11.6) is detected as a reliable beacon. As a result, our proposed method sho ws a mark ed impro v ement when compared to other methods. c. Ov erall accurac y comparison Figure 11 depicts the accumulati v e error of four approaches. As we can see, our proposed method has the best performance in total of four . The a v erage error of the method is 1.9 m. Our proposed method helps increase the accurac y of indoor positioning by 35.15% o v er the con v entional trilateration method, 23.22% o v er the least square method, and 15.55% o v er weighted least square method. Smartphone indoor positioning based on enhanced BLE beacon... (Ngoc-Son Duong) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
60 r ISSN: 1693-6930 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 12 North Proposed Method Trilateration position LS position WLS position True Position 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 12 East 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 12 South 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 12 West Figure 10. Actual and estimated position of 4 methods at 4-orientations 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Localization Error (m) 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 CDF Conventional Line Intersection-Based Trilateration Least Square Estimation Proposed Method Weighted Least Square Estimation Figure 11. Comparison of distance error distrib ution for dif ferent methods 5. CONCLUSION In this paper , we introduced a plain and rob ust method to impro v e the accurac y of the tri lateration- based indoor positioning system using BLE beacon. The proposed method mak es use of an RSSI range (greater than -70 dBm equi v alent to a distance of less than 3 m) to estimate the distance accurately . This increases the positioning accurac y by mo ving the estimated position of trilateration to reliable circles. In addition, the po wer of four beacons is utilized at the same time for more accurate positioning. Experimental results sho w that this is an ef fecti v e and rob ust proposed scheme. As we ha v e seen the impact of rLOS beacon, in the future, we will study the optimal method of beacon placement, in which, in an y position, users al w ays be able to observ e an rLOS beacon. A CKNO WLEDGMENT This w ork has been supported/partly supported by V ietnam National Uni v ersity , Hanoi (VNU), under Project No. QG.19.25 REFERENCES [1] H. Liu, J . Y ang, S. Sidhom, Y . W ang, Y . Chen and F . Y e, Accurate W iFi Based Localization for Smartphones Using Peer Assistance, IEEE T r ansactions on Mobile Computing , v ol. 13, no. 10, pp. 2199-2214, 2014. TELK OMNIKA T elecommun Comput El Control, V ol. 19, No. 1, February 2021 : 51 62 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.