ROS-Based Industrial Indoor Positioning System

Funding Program: European Union Framework Programme

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are widely used for outdoor positioning applications. However, because satellite signals cannot effectively penetrate buildings, GNSS-based solutions are not suitable for indoor environments.

Indoor positioning is a key enabling technology for Industry 4.0, supporting applications such as Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), personnel and asset tracking, location-based services, and intelligent factory operations. Advanced indoor positioning also enables applications including dynamic robot navigation, equipment performance monitoring (OEE, KPIs, and reliability), real-time inventory tracking, and location-based emergency detection, all of which contribute to increased operational efficiency.

Although the Robot Operating System (ROS) is widely adopted for robotics development, it currently lacks a dedicated, standalone package for industrial indoor positioning. To address this gap, the project aims to develop the algorithms required for accurate absolute indoor localization together with a ROS-compatible positioning package designed specifically for industrial mobile robots.

The proposed algorithms and ROS package are designed to support Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA)-based positioning technologies, providing a flexible and scalable foundation for next-generation indoor localization in smart manufacturing and autonomous robotic applications.