The Anyplace 4.0 IoT Localization Architecture

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution has massively introduced sensor-rich tracking devices to an ever growing landscape of smart spaces (e.g., factories, hospitals, and ships). One problem that remains unsolved over the years is the localization problem for IoT, given that Satellite-based solutions are inaccurate in indoor spaces where human activity takes place 80-90% of the time. In this paper, we introduce a novel opensource architecture for IoT localization, coined Anyplace 4.0 IoT (A4IoT), which exploits signal fingerprinting to organize under the same roof a wide range of different localization technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi, BLE, Cellular, UWB, Computer Vision). We present the technical requirements of A4IoT inspired by the Alstom SA smart factory, operating worldwide in rail transport markets. A4IoT comprises a crowdsourcing architecture where deployers can collect and organize fingerprint signals inside smart spaces in a designated localization service running on the Edge (from Raspberry to Datacenter). The service incorporates timeseries databases for tracking targets and deployers can provide accurate room-level localization accuracy (≈ 2 m) on a variety of platforms (e.g., Android, Linux, Mac, Windows, Robot OS) but also integrate A4IoT through Web 2.0 endpoints to their software ecosystems.