A Pedestrian Navigation System for Urban and Indoor Environments

Franz Weimann, Gunther Abwerzger, and Bernhard Hofmann-Wellenhof

Abstract:	The main objective of the project ‘SARHA - Sensor- Augmented EGNOS/Galileo Receiver for Handheld Applications in Urban and Indoor Environments’ was the development of a modern satellite navigation receiver with autonomous sensor augmentation. The implemented hybrid navigation software is split up into two parts: The first one is implemented directly on the GNSS receiver, whereas the second part runs on a single-board computer (SBC). This paper provides an overview on personal mobility and typical applications related to the system, describes the system architecture and the hybrid navigation software in detail. Three different step detection algorithms with respect to peak detection, zero crossing, and autocorrelation method are compared to each other. CPU requirements, smoothness of the results, and stability of the results in difficult environments are typical features to be analyzed. While radar technology is quite common for speed determination in vehicle applications, it is not yet state-ofthe- art in pedestrian navigation. This paper presents a comparison of velocity estimation using three different technologies: GPS/EGNOS, accelerations, and radar technology, investigating whether radar technology might be an alternative to accelerations in the dead reckoning mode. Additionally, the hybrid navigation system is enhanced by a transponder system containing a low-power receiver carried by the pedestrian and transmitters installed within buildings for indoor positioning updates. As soon as a person wearing the receiver is close enough to a transmitter, the carrier is detected and the transmitted information decoded. Using the transponder system allows the SARHA system to increase accuracy and reliability indoors and to mitigate the drift of autonomous sensors in the absence of GNSS. Finally, the paper presents some position and height results obtained during field demonstrations in the framework of the SARHA project.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007) September 25 - 28, 2007 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	1380 - 1389
Cite this article:	Weimann, Franz, Abwerzger, Gunther, Hofmann-Wellenhof, Bernhard, "A Pedestrian Navigation System for Urban and Indoor Environments," Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007), Fort Worth, TX, September 2007, pp. 1380-1389.
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