Magnetic localization system for short-range positioning: a ready-to-use design tool

Magnetic localization is used in many indoor positioning applications, such as industrial, medical and IoT, for its benefits related to the absence of line of sight needs, multipath and fading, the low cost of transmitters and receivers, the simple development of set-ups made of coils and magnetic sensors. In short ranges applications, this technology could bring some advantages respect to ultrasound, laser or RF ones. Nevertheless, fixed both the desired accuracy and the energy constraints, the optimal design of a localization system based on magnetic measurement depends on several factors: the dimension, the number and the optimal positions of the anchors, the uncertainties due to the sensing elements and the data acquisition systems. To preliminary fix all these parameters, suitable simulation environments allow developers saving time and money in developing localization applications. Many magnetic field simulators are available, but it is rare to find those which, considering the uncertainty due to the receiver and data acquisition systems, are able to provide optimal anchors scenario given a target accuracy. To address this problem, the paper presents a simulation tool providing the user with design requirements for a given target accuracy. The aim of the paper is to perform first steps in providing a read-to-use specification framework that given the localization domain, the mobile sensors and the data acquisition system characteristics and the target accuracy, helps the developer of indoor magnetic positioning systems. The actual validity of the simulation model has been tested on a real set-up.