An indoor navigation platform for seeking Internet of Things devices in large indoor environment

Abstract

With the proliferation of mobile Internet of Things (IoT) devices, finding those devices for maintenance or for a reattribution can be a long and difficult process, particularly in large institutions such as hospitals with hundreds of devices. With the availability of wireless networks, it is now possible to track those IoT devices and locate them in outdoors as well as in indoor environments. In this paper, we are presenting the results of the development and deployment of a system that combines (i) the tracking of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in large indoor environments via microlocalization algorithms, and (ii) an indoor navigation systems to reach those IoT devices. This project was deployed in a large hospital environment in Canada of 12 floors and more than 350 WiFi access points. The results show that it is possible to locate those devices with a precision of around 3 square-meters and to propose effective tools for technicians to seek them in large indoor environments.