Infrastructure-less indoor positioning in 3D

The goal for the project "Infrastructure-less indoor positioning in 3D" (IIP3) has been to do the same for indoor positioning as GPS has done for outdoor positioning. During the project period, we have developed a general, sensor-agnostic platform enabling precise indoor positioning through the combination of ranging measurements from available transmission technologies (such as Bluetooth Low Energy and/or ultrasound) with information from other sensors (such as gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer). Several customer solutions building on the project results have already been launched in the market, and additional solutions are in development. In addition to Sonitor IPS Holding AS, Sonitor Technologies AS and Forkbeard Technologies AS, the IIP3 project partners have been MazeMap AS, the University of Oslo (UiO) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI).

The project "Infrastructure-less indoor positioning in 3D" has been a great success for the participating partners Forkbeard Technologies, MazeMap, FFI and UiO. The project has resulted in a number of new algorithms and insights, meaning that the goal of realising a ubiquitous indoor positioning solution requiring no infrastructure now is within reach. Based on the project results Forkbeard has already deployed several customer solutions that use some of the technological breakthroughs realised in the project, such as the ability to deploy a software Bluetooth to cloud gateway as part of a smartphone app. For Forkbeard's customers this means a dramatic reduction of the cost of deploying a solution while at the same time new capabilities for positioning and localising resources within their organisation. The project has published several of the new technological developments in international, peer reviewed journals.

In this project Sonitor IPS Holding AS, Sonitor Technologies AS and Forkbeard Technologies AS, the world's leading group of companies for the use of ultrasound in indoor positioning, join forces with indoor wayfinding expertise at MazeMap AS and highly innovative ultrasound and sensor fusion research environments at respectively the University of Oslo (UiO) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), to develop an infrastructure-less indoor positioning technology based on an innovative sensor fusion approach. We are confident that successful development of this technology will accelerate the value generation of indoor positioning to a level that surpasses GPS and outdoor solutions today.