PLAN: Indoor Positioning Using Bluetooth with Received Signal Strength Indicator

Abstract

Personnel Localization and Automation Network (PLAN) is a system to monitor individuals or inventory and gather information on activities and locations. Positioning an entity or inventory in a finite space and retrieving the location can be achieved using Bluetooth communication technology. The Bluetooth-based positioning system is applied to pinpoint an object in a bounded area using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) with Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The proposed system focuses on the real-time positioning of an individual in a definite region by the BLE signal communication between the anchors and transmitters. The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the BLE device acts as the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of the individual. The details of the entity are recorded with the MAC address. BLE devices (anchors) act as beacons communicating with the portable BLE devices (transmitters) carried by the entity. The anchors (beacons) detect the transmitting devices using Bluetooth technology using RSSI and assist to discover the transmitters present inside the range. RSSI technique is implemented using Trilateration and Kalman Filters algorithms to ensure accuracy and proximity. The MAC address of the transmitters assists in identifying the individual. The MAC address of the anchors eases in distinguishing the particular place. Two or more anchors are needed to pinpoint the exact location of the individual in the defined region. The anchors send a push notification with the MAC address of the transmitters and location values to the SQLite database over Wi-Fi.