Combining Visual, Pedestrian, and Collaborative Navigation Techniques for Team Based Infrastructure Free Indoor Navigation

Abstract

In this paper the authors describe the design and evaluation of a multi sensor integrated navigation system specifically targeted at teams of cooperating users operating in transient indoor conditions such as would be encountered by emergency services personnel or soldiers entering unknown buildings. Since these conditions preclude the use of dedicated indoor infrastructure the system depends on the combination of multiple self contained navigation sensors as well as dynamic networking and ranging between the users to form a decentralized cooperative navigating team. Within this paper we will discuss the design and evaluation of a system developed within a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project executed by the SINTEF and the Finnish Geospatial Researcher Institute (FGI) during 2018 and 2019. The motivation of this project was to combine the expertise of the FGI in pedestrian and camera based infrastructure free navigation with the collaborative navigation and integrated navigation system design expertise of SINTEF towards the accurate navigation and continuous situational awareness of teams of cooperating users. When completed, the combined navigation system will be a shoulder mounted package which comprises a triple frequency GNSS receiver for rapid outdoor initialization, as well as a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), barometer, magnetometer, three different navigation and communication radios as well as a stereo vision plus depth sensing camera connected to and synchronized by an integrated processor platform. Two of the three radios provide for user-to-user range measurement and data exchange via each of 2.4 GHz and Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) signals to allow for collaborative navigation as well as situational awareness within the network, while the 3rd radio provides a link to separate navigation sensors such as a foot mounted IMU pod for enhanced Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR). The integrated camera provides stereo color imaging as well as structured light based infrared depth sensing, while the processor platform is responsible for data collection and processing.