A High Fidelity Indoor Navigation System for Users in Motion Using BLE with Beacons

Indoor location and micro location systems are complicated by the lack of available GPS signals. This gap is being filled by Bluetooth and WiFi, but these systems have difficulty maintaining accuracy when the user is moving. Using a smoothing algorithm and evenly spaced BLE beacons running iBeacon software, paired with a custom designed iOS application, a two meter accuracy is achievable while the user is in motion. This paper presents the following research results: 1) a novel prediction system for indoor positioning and navigation using low-cost BLE beacons that performs at an accuracy of 2.2 m while the user is moving at walking speeds, 2) a generalized indoor micro-location system that can be easily and rapidly deployed to new environments (within hours), 3) a comparison and performance analysis of 5 smoothing algorithms, and 4) an architectural model by which other researchers can extend our work on indoor positioning and navigation.