System and method for automating beacon location map generation using sensor fusion and simultaneous localization and mapping

摘要

A system and method, which utilizes incremental smoothing and mapping (iSAM) algorithm and automatically builds a beacon location map using various sensor and environmental information. The aforesaid iSAM algorithm fuses received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values available from different beacons in the environment and the information provided by the IMU sensor. The aforesaid iSAM algorithm is capable of simultaneously generating beacon and landmark map and localize the mobile computing device in the environment without having any prior information about any beacon locations. To accommodate for noisy sensor data and achieve better convergence for the iSAM algorithm, the system uses a prior beacon location map, which contains location information of some of the BLE beacons located in the environment. These known beacon locations provide cleaner environmental information to the iSAM algorithm and hence improve the overall estimation of beacon locations, which were not available apriori.