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PDR with a foot-mounted IMU and ramp detection
Antonio R Jiménez1, Fernando Seco, Francisco Zampella
1Centre for Automation and Robotics, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-UPM, Ctra. Campo Real km 0.2, La Poveda, Arganda del Rey, Madrid, 28500, Spain. antonio.jimenez@csic.es
This study introduces a novel pedestrian dead-reckoning (PDR) system using a single foot-mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) to correct indoor positioning drift. By detecting building access ramps, the system achieves highly accurate indoor localization with minimal error.
Area of Science:
- Robotics and Automation
- Geomatics Engineering
- Sensor Fusion
Background:
- Indoor localization remains a significant challenge, with existing solutions like Local Positioning Systems (LPS) requiring extensive sensor networks.
- Pedestrian Dead-Reckoning (PDR) offers a sensor-only approach but suffers from accumulated positioning errors due to sensor noise and drift.
- Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), comprising accelerometers and gyroscopes, are central to PDR but prone to drift.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an improved PDR-based indoor localization system that mitigates drift errors without external sensors.
- To introduce a novel drift correction method leveraging the detection of architectural features, specifically building access ramps.
- To enhance the accuracy and reliability of indoor positioning using a single IMU attached to the user's foot.
Main Methods:
- A PDR framework was implemented using an Inertial Navigation System (INS) algorithm and a single IMU attached to the foot.
- A drift correction method was developed based on detecting building access ramps by estimating terrain slope and height changes from IMU data.
- Detected ramps were associated with a pre-existing database, and corrections were integrated into a Kalman Filter to refine the INS-PDR solution.
Main Results:
- The proposed PDR solution successfully incorporated a drift correction mechanism using only a foot-mounted IMU.
- Ramp detection and association with a database enabled effective position correction, significantly reducing cumulative errors.
- The system achieved drift-free localization with positioning errors under 2 meters for routes up to 1,000 meters in a building environment.
Conclusions:
- A single foot-mounted IMU is sufficient for accurate indoor localization when combined with a ramp-detection-based drift correction strategy.
- The novel approach overcomes the limitations of traditional PDR systems by actively correcting drift without external infrastructure.
- This method offers a promising, low-cost, and infrastructure-free solution for precise indoor navigation and positioning.
