An online localization method for a subway train utilizing the barometer on a smartphone

Abstract

Knowing the location of a train is necessary for the development of useful services for train passengers. However, popular localization methods such as GPS and Wi-Fi are not accurate, especially on a subway. This paper proposes an online algorithm for localization on a subway using only a barometer. We estimate the motion state from the change of elevation, then estimate the last station stopped at using the similarity of a series of elevations recorded when the train stopped to the actual elevations of the stations. We evaluated the proposed method using data from the subway in Tokyo. We also developed a mobile application to demonstrate the proposed method.