Enhanced Localization for Indoor Construction

Considerable research work had been conducted in recent years embracing the utilization of wireless technologies in construction with a focus on identification of locations of material, equipment and personnel. A fundamental key for reliable and accurate use of these technologies is path loss models, which are used to estimate distances based on received signal strength (RSSI). This paper introduces a newly developed path loss model accounting for signal de-noising using a Kalman filter. The developed model is tested using four wireless technologies (WLAN, Bluetooth, Zigbee and Synapse SNAP), 20 experiments were carried out in laboratory environment and 1500 data sets were analyzed to investigate the accuracy of distance estimation. The results show an average of 50% enhancement in the distance estimation accuracy, which considered a potential for enhanced localization on indoor construction jobsites.