A Robust and Accurate Indoor Localization Using Learning-Based Fusion of Wi-Fi RTT and RSSI

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Mar 31;22(7):2700. doi: 10.3390/s22072700.

Abstract

Great attention has been paid to indoor localization due to its wide range of associated applications and services. Fingerprinting and time-based localization techniques are among the most popular approaches in the field due to their promising performance. However, fingerprinting techniques usually suffer from signal fluctuations and interference, which yields unstable localization performance. On the other hand, the accuracy of time-based techniques is highly affected by multipath propagation errors and non-line-of-sight transmissions. To combat these challenges, this paper presents a hybrid deep-learning-based indoor localization system called RRLoc which fuses fingerprinting and time-based techniques with a view of combining their advantages. RRLoc leverages a novel approach for fusing received signal strength indication (RSSI) and round-trip time (RTT) measurements and extracting high-level features using deep canonical correlation analysis. The extracted features are then used in training a localization model for facilitating the location estimation process. Different modules are incorporated to improve the deep model's generalization against overtraining and noise. The experimental results obtained at two different indoor environments show that RRLoc improves localization accuracy by at least 267% and 496% compared to the state-of-the-art fingerprinting and ranging-based-multilateration techniques, respectively.

Keywords: canonical correlation analysis; deep learning; fingerprinting; indoor localization; round-trip time.