Development of an UWB based Indoor Positioning System

The demand for precise indoor positioning is increasing nowadays, since traditional methods, like GPS, cannot be used in indoor environments. Lots of technologies exist that can be used for such purposes, having their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to positioning. However, it seems that UWB is the most favorable, having the possibility to achieve the best accuracy due to its spectral features. Although, in the past years several companies appeared as a UWB chip and antenna manufacturer providing out-of-the-box solutions, most of them only have chips or demonstration kits to purchase. The paper shows the development and testing of an UWB indoor positioning system using commercially available hardware and specific software elements in order to allow flexibility required for research purposes.