Using wireless Ethernet for localization

IEEE 802. 11b wireless Ethernet is rapidly becoming the standard for in-building and short-range wireless communication. Many mobile devices such as mobile robots, laptops and PDAs already use this protocol for wireless communication. Many wireless Ethernet cards measure the signal strength of incoming packets. This paper investigates the feasibility of implementing a localization system using this sensor. Using a Bayesian localization framework, we show experiments demonstrating that off-the-shelf wireless hardware can accurately be used for location sensing and tracking with about one meter precision in a wireless-enabled office building.

Authors

• Andrew M. Ladd
• Kostas E. Bekris
• Guillaume Marceau
• Algis Rudys
• Dan S. Wallach
• Lydia E. Kavraki

Keywords

• Ethernet networks
• Wireless communication
• Wireless sensor networks
• Communication standards
• Mobile robots
• Portable computers
• Personal digital assistants
• Wireless application protocol
• Sensor systems
• Bayesian methods
• Wireless Ethernet
• Signal Strength
• Mobile Robot
• Office Buildings
• Bayesian Inference
• State Space
• Conditional Probability
• Hidden Markov Model
• Wireless Networks
• Base Station
• Indoor Environments
• Pose Estimation
• Transition Probability Matrix
• Human Motion
• Inference System
• Localizer
• Human Operator
• Odometry
• Robot Localization
• Dead Reckoning
• Building Geometry