Indoor Visible Light Positioning with Angle Diversity Transmitter

A new concept for indoor positioning using visible light communication (VLC) is presented in this paper. The feasibility of uplink localization is verified so that the proposed system can work in conjunction with downlink positioning systems to improve overall localization accuracy. We propose to use an angle diversity transmitter (ADT) associated with accelerometers for uplink three-dimensional localization. Unlike other techniques using VLC for positioning, the proposed system can achieve indoor localization without making assumptions about the height or orientation angle of a mobile user. The received signal strength (RSS) method is used to minimize implementation costs while achieving satisfactory positioning accuracy. Simulation results show that an average localization error of less than 0.15 m can be achieved even when the receiver is tilted by 45°. Also, compared with a single light emitting diode (LED), the ADT is found to be more robust to accelerometer measurement errors.