Accurate and Low-Power Ultrasound-Radiofrequency (RF) Indoor Ranging Using MEMS Loudspeaker Arrays

Accurately positioning energy-constrained devices in indoor environments is of great interest to many professional, care, and personal applications. Hybrid RF-acoustic ranging systems have shown to be a viable technology in this regard, enabling accurate distance measurements at ultra-low energy costs. However, they often suffer from self-interference due to multipaths in indoor environments. We replace the typical single loudspeaker beacons used in these systems with a phased loudspeaker array to promote the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio towards the tracked device. Specifically, we optimize the design of a low-cost uniform planar array (UPA) through simulation to achieve the best ranging performance using ultrasonic chirps. Furthermore, we compare the ranging performance of this optimized UPA configuration to a traditional, single-loudspeaker system. Simulations show that vertical phased-array configurations guarantee the lowest ranging errors in typical shoe-box environments, having a limited height with respect to their length and width. In these cases, a P50 ranging error of around 3 cm and P95 ranging error below 30 cm were achieved. Compared to a single-speaker system, a 10 × 2 vertical phased array was able to lower the P80 and P95 up to an order of magnitude.