Local Positioning System Using Flickering Infrared LEDs

Thibaut Raharijaona (1) , Rodolphe Mawonou (1) , Thanh Nguyen (1) , Fabien Colonnier (2) , Marc Boyron (1) , Julien Diperi (1) , Stéphane Viollet (3)

1 ISM - Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne Jules Marey
2 Temasek life sciences laboratory [Singapore]
3 BIOROB - Biorobotique

A minimalistic optical sensing device for the indoor localization is proposed to estimate the relative position between the sensor and active markers using amplitude modulated infrared light. The innovative insect-based sensor can measure azimuth and elevation angles with respect to two small and cheap active infrared light emitting diodes (LEDs) flickering at two different frequencies. In comparison to a previous lensless visual sensor that we proposed for proximal localization (less than 30 cm), we implemented: (i) a minimalistic sensor in terms of small size (10 cm 3), light weight (6 g) and low power consumption (0.4 W); (ii) an Arduino-compatible demodulator for fast analog signal processing requiring low computational resources; and (iii) an indoor positioning system for a mobile robotic application. Our results confirmed that the proposed sensor was able to estimate the position at a distance of 2 m with an accuracy as small as 2-cm at a sampling frequency of 100 Hz. Our sensor can be also suitable to be implemented in a position feedback loop for indoor robotic applications in GPS-denied environment.

Mots clés: indoor positioning; infrared light communication; LED; photodiode (PD); visual motion

Domaines: Optique / photonique; Automatique / Robotique; Automatique; Electronique

Thibaut Raharijaona, Rodolphe Mawonou, Thanh Nguyen, Fabien Colonnier, Marc Boyron, et al.. Local Positioning System Using Flickering Infrared LEDs. Sensors, 2017, 17 (11), ⟨10.3390/s17112518⟩. ⟨hal-01630782⟩