An Ultra-Wideband Positioning Demonstrator Using Audio Signals

UWB technology has been recognized as an ideal candidate to provide positioning information in indoor environments. However, demonstrators useful to test UWB positioning algorithms are still difficult to realize due to the hardware requirements of this technology and the scarceness of components available in the market. For this reason, the use of an acoustic demonstrator is proposed. By scaling the frequencies with a specific factor, it is possible to obtain the same wavelengths for the audio signals as for the radio signals. In this way, similar interactions with the environment can be observed. A validation of this technique is provided, by analyzing and comparing the large scale statistics and the RMS delay spread of the channel impulse response obtained with the two types of signals, and the similarities and differences are underlined. Finally, first results on the TOA estimation accuracy for different propagation conditions and on the positioning performance achievable using audio signals are shown. With the proposed audio demonstrator an accuracy at centimeter level can be achieved for LOS propagation.