A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles

Indoor Positioning Systems (IPSs) have multiple applications. For example, they can be used to guide people, to locate items in a warehouse and to support the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). Currently most AGVs use local pre-defined navigation systems, but they lack a global localisat...

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Main Authors: Aleix Boixader, Carlos Labella, Marisa Catalan, Josep Paradells
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-12-01
Series:Electronics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/1/82
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author Aleix Boixader
Carlos Labella
Marisa Catalan
Josep Paradells
author_facet Aleix Boixader
Carlos Labella
Marisa Catalan
Josep Paradells
author_sort Aleix Boixader
collection DOAJ
description Indoor Positioning Systems (IPSs) have multiple applications. For example, they can be used to guide people, to locate items in a warehouse and to support the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). Currently most AGVs use local pre-defined navigation systems, but they lack a global localisation system. Integrating both systems is uncommon due to the inherent challenge in balancing accuracy with coverage. Visible Light Position (VLP) offers accurate and fast localisation, but it encounters scalability limitations. To overcome this, this paper presents a novel Image Sensor-based VLP (IS-VLP) identification method that harnesses existing Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting infrastructure to substitute both navigation and localisation systems effectively in the whole area. We developed an IPS that achieves six-axis positioning at 90 Hz refresh rate using OpenCV’s solvePnP algorithm and embedded computing. This IPS has been validated in a laboratory environment and successfully deployed in a real factory to position an operative AGV. The system has resulted in accuracies better than 12 cm for 95% of the measurements. This work advances towards positioning VLP as an appealing choice for IPS in industrial environments, offering an inexpensive, scalable, accurate and robust solution.
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spelling doaj.art-d230ba425ea8482c8e9a3122fae9faeb2024-01-10T14:54:21ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922023-12-011318210.3390/electronics13010082A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided VehiclesAleix Boixader0Carlos Labella1Marisa Catalan2Josep Paradells3IoT Research Group, Fundació i2CAT, 08034 Barcelona, SpainIoT Research Group, Fundació i2CAT, 08034 Barcelona, SpainIoT Research Group, Fundació i2CAT, 08034 Barcelona, SpainIoT Research Group, Fundació i2CAT, 08034 Barcelona, SpainIndoor Positioning Systems (IPSs) have multiple applications. For example, they can be used to guide people, to locate items in a warehouse and to support the navigation of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). Currently most AGVs use local pre-defined navigation systems, but they lack a global localisation system. Integrating both systems is uncommon due to the inherent challenge in balancing accuracy with coverage. Visible Light Position (VLP) offers accurate and fast localisation, but it encounters scalability limitations. To overcome this, this paper presents a novel Image Sensor-based VLP (IS-VLP) identification method that harnesses existing Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting infrastructure to substitute both navigation and localisation systems effectively in the whole area. We developed an IPS that achieves six-axis positioning at 90 Hz refresh rate using OpenCV’s solvePnP algorithm and embedded computing. This IPS has been validated in a laboratory environment and successfully deployed in a real factory to position an operative AGV. The system has resulted in accuracies better than 12 cm for 95% of the measurements. This work advances towards positioning VLP as an appealing choice for IPS in industrial environments, offering an inexpensive, scalable, accurate and robust solution.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/1/82indoor positioningvisible light positioningvisible light communicationreal-timedeployment focusedperspective-n-point
spellingShingle Aleix Boixader
Carlos Labella
Marisa Catalan
Josep Paradells
A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
Electronics
indoor positioning
visible light positioning
visible light communication
real-time
deployment focused
perspective-n-point
title A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
title_full A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
title_fullStr A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
title_full_unstemmed A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
title_short A High-Accuracy, Scalable and Affordable Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light Positioning for Automated Guided Vehicles
title_sort high accuracy scalable and affordable indoor positioning system using visible light positioning for automated guided vehicles
topic indoor positioning
visible light positioning
visible light communication
real-time
deployment focused
perspective-n-point
url https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/1/82
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