A Wi-Fi/PDR Fusion Localization Method Based on Genetic Algorithm Global Optimization

In indoor environments, fusion localization methods that combine Wi-Fi fingerprinting and Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) are constrained by the high sensitivity of traditional filters, such as the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), to initial states and by their susceptibility to nonlinear drift. This study presents a Wi-Fi/PDR fusion localization approach based on global geometric alignment optimized via a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The proposed method models the PDR trajectory as an integrated geometric entity and performs a global search for the optimal two-dimensional similarity transformation that aligns it with discrete Wi-Fi observations, thereby eliminating dependence on precise initial conditions and mitigating multipath noise. Experiments conducted in a real office environment (14 × 9 m, eight dual-band APs) with a double-L trajectory demonstrate that the proposed GA fusion achieves the lowest mean error of 0.878 m (compared to 2.890 m, 1.277 m, and 1.193 m for Wi-Fi, PDR, and EKF fusion, respectively) and an RMSE of 0.978 m. It also attains the best trajectory fidelity (DTW = 0.390 m, improving by 71.0%, 14.7%, and 27.8%) and the smallest maximum deviation (Hausdorff = 1.904 m, 52.4% lower than Wi-Fi). The cumulative error distribution shows that 90% of GA fusion errors are within 1.5 m, outperforming EKF and PDR. Additional experiments that compare the proposed GA optimizer with Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and Procrustes alignment, as well as tests with 30% artificial Wi-Fi outliers, further confirm the robustness of the Huber-based cost and the effectiveness of the global optimization framework. These results indicate that the proposed GA-based fusion method achieves high robustness and accuracy in the tested office-scale scenario and demonstrate its potential as a practical multi-sensor fusion approach for indoor localization.