Ch 37. Overview of Indoor Navigation Techniques

Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the state of the‐art in the area of indoor localization and navigation. One can consider localization as an instantaneous process, providing the location of a user or object being tracked at a specific instance of time. In contrast, navigation can be considered as a form of continuous localization, where location estimates must be provided frequently and periodically over time to help a user while they navigate an indoor environment. Tracking can be considered to be similar to navigation, except that the location estimates of the mobile subject are provided not to the user but to some third party that is interested in the location information.

The chapter is organized as follows. Section 37.2 discusses performance metrics that are necessary to understand, in order to compare and contrast the landscape of indoor localization approaches. Section 37.3 provides an easy reference to the key technical terms that are used throughout the rest of the chapter. Section 37.4 presents a review of the various signals that can be used to provide tracking in indoor locales, for the purpose of localization. Section 37.5 provides an overview of the vast landscape of solutions for indoor localization. Lastly, Section 37.6 discusses open research issues and challenges that still remain to be overcome for viable indoor localization.