Positioning systems do what the name implies: they determine the position of objects in real time. You will find many applications, including in the consumer market, for example in smartphones. We can distinguish between internal and external positioning systems.
External systems determine the position of objects outside of closed rooms. They are often based on satellite signals and have been tested and actively for many years already (i.e. GPS).
Internal positioning systems, also called indoor positioning systems, are relatively new in terms of research and their actual application. Indoor positioning systems present big opportunities, but also big challenges. For example, technologies such as GPS are too inaccurate and unreliable when it comes to determining the position of objects within small spaces like rooms. You could use radio waves, but when you use them within rooms, you get the so-called “multipath effect” due to reflections from the walls.
The global trends shaping the early 21st century, like the rise of the IoT, create urgent new demand for high-precision location tracking systems. Modern positioning technology is slowly getting to the point where it is accurate enough to handle the…
