Indoor positioning system: a review

Abstract

Global Positioning System (GPS) has been developed in outdoor environments in recent years. GPS offers a wide range of applications in outdoor areas, including military, weather forecasting, vehicle tracking, mapping, farming, and many more. In an outdoor environment, an exact location, velocity, and time can be determined by using GPS. Rather than emitting satellite signals, GPS receivers passively receive them. However, due to No Line-of-Sight (NLoS), low signal strength, and low accuracy, GPS is not suitable to be used indoors. As consequence, the indoor environment necessitates a different Indoor Positioning System (IPS) approach that is capable to locate the position within a structure. IPS systems provide a variety of location-based indoor tracking solutions, such as Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS), indoor navigation, inventory management, and first-responder location systems. Different technologies, algorithms, and techniques have been proposed in IPS to determine the position and accuracy of the system. This paper introduces a review article on indoor positioning technologies, algorithms, and techniques. This review paper is expected to deliver a better understanding to the reader and compared the better solutions for IPS by choosing the suitable technologies, algorithms, and techniques that need to be implemented according to their situation.