An Approach for Self-Adaptive Path Loss Modelling for Positioning in Underground Environments

Evgeny Osipov,Denis Kleyko,Alexey Shapin

doi:10.1155/2016/3424768

Abstract

This paper proposes a real-time self-adaptive approach for accurate path loss estimation in underground mines or tunnels based on signal strength measurements from heterogeneous radio communication technologies. The proposed model features simplicity of implementation. The methodology is validated in simulations and verified by measurements taken in real environments. The proposed method leverages accuracy of positioning matching the existing approaches while requiring smaller engineering efforts.

Highlights

Accurate positioning in underground environments like tunnels or mines is essential for their efficient operation as well as for personal safety, for example, reducing the number of incidents
An example of such a complementary system is RFID with passive tags, which is often installed for safety monitoring, monitoring of assets and environmental conditions, controlling of delivery cycles of trucks, collision avoidance between vehicles in tunnels, and so forth
This paper presents a methodology, which utilizes the diversity of the deployed radio technologies and provides a robust and accurate positioning service by combining information from multiple heterogeneous wireless technologies

Summary

Introduction

Accurate positioning in underground environments like tunnels or mines is essential for their efficient operation (e.g., logistics, energy savings, and improved decision support) as well as for personal safety, for example, reducing the number of incidents. The main motivation for this work is that other radio systems with higher accuracy in combination with IEEE 802.11 networks should jointly enhance the accuracy of positioning An example of such a complementary system is RFID with passive tags, which is often installed for safety monitoring, monitoring of assets and environmental conditions, controlling of delivery cycles of trucks, collision avoidance between vehicles in tunnels, and so forth. The decisive factor influencing the accuracy at this step is the quality of the adopted radio propagation model and the ability to accurately estimate the radio signal path loss in the given environment. This paper proposes a practical approach for self-adaptive estimation of the signal path loss in the given deployment site.

Related Work

System-Level Architecture Description

Self-Adaptive Path Loss Model

Validation of the Proposed Methodology and Its Real-Life Performance

Findings

Discussion and Conclusion