Mobile robot self-localization system using IR-UWB sensor in indoor environments

Robot localization is a fundamental problem in mobile robotics. This paper proposes the use of a new type of sensor that permits accurate localization in indoor environments. An impulse radio (IR) ultra wide-band (UWB) sensor uses very short baseband pulses for transmission. This sensor facilitates the development of indoor location and tracking applications based on time of arrival estimation with great accuracy. There are many different sensors and techniques that have been proposed for indoor localization; however they usually have large errors in non line of sight (NLOS) conditions or with certain environment conditions. The objective of this paper is to propose a self-localization system based on time of arrival (TOA) estimation algorithm that permits precise localization in indoor environments with obstructed line of sight. This work proposes a new wavelet cyclic cross correlation strategy for time of arrival estimation based on non-coherent receiver structure and sliding correlation techniques for multiple user differentiation. The simulation results show that the propose localization system overcome the problems of NLOS conditions and makes possible the mobile robot localization with small number of base stations.