Calibration of BLE beacons and its impact on distance estimation using the log-distance path loss model

Abstract

The indoor positioning system is used to determine the location of people or objects in an enclosed space. It can be used in many applications such as navigation or even active marketing to provide a better experience to customers. There are various solutions to perform indoor localization. In this paper, the focus is on the use of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons to determine the position of the customer or object in the room. Therefore, the goal of this work is to use low-cost HM-10 BLE boards to test their accuracy and use as beacons. After collecting and analyzing the data, it was determined that HM-10 is a viable solution for beacons. When using the log-distance path loss model to determine distance, the experiments show variations between different HM-10 boards, suggesting the need for calibration to obtain more accurate results.