Dissertation Proposal - University of Houston
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Dissertation Proposal

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Hessam Mohammadmoradi

will defend his dissertation proposal

Robust Indoor Asset Tracking using UWB Wireless Technology


Abstract

The recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have started a new era in modern building management. Various types of sensing platforms are being deployed to understand the in-depth behavior of the occupants in buildings while maintaining human comfort. Technology that can accurately estimate the number of occupants in a room or track them inside the buildings could become a key enabler for many applications in this space. In general definition, indoor localization means finding exact location of devices. Existing indoor localization and tracking solutions can be divided into two main categories: passive and active solutions. Passive asset tracking systems are scalable, but their accuracy is limited to few meters (Room Level). On the other side, in active tacking scenarios, the target is carrying a track-able device which makes the location estimation more accurate and robust. In this thesis, we study both categories and improve scalablity and robustness of indoor people counting and tracking solutions. We studied the feasibility of installing different kinds of sensors such IR array, WiFi and UWB on the front door and counting people who walk in and out to the room. The result of this work is published as 2 research papers. Ultrawideband (UWB)-based indoor localization techniques are one of the well-known and popular passive indoor tracking systems. Large bandwidth of UWB signals makes them resilient to multipath fading problem and brings them ability to estimate the location of target with few centimeters error. Despite the recent advancement on accuracy of UWB based indoor tracking systems, the robustness of these systems did not receive enough attention from research community until last few years. There are 3 basic challenges in robustness of UWB systems: non line of sight existence, multipath effects and multiple user interference. In this thesis we utilize multipath effects to handle the NLoS scenarios. To mitigate the problem of multiple user interference (tracking multiple targets), we try to utilize ranging information to adjust transmission power to reduce amount of interference. We also evaluate of performance of IEEE802.15.4-11 standard in UWB mesh networks and try to improve the robustness of UWB communication in context of mesh networks.


Date: Monday, February 26, 2018
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: PGH 501D
Advisors: Dr. Omprakash Gnawali

Faculty, students, and the general public are invited.