Towards Automated Calibration of Visible Light Positioning Systems

Localization based on visible light is a novel technique for indoor positioning that provides a number of advantages over traditional radio frequency based approaches. An important step in the deployment of visible light positioning systems is the calibration procedure, during which environmental parameters such as the positions of light sources are determined. This work presents a proof-of-concept approach to obtain these parameters in an efficient manner by using a mobile robot. This robot builds a map of the environment, and adds the location and identifier of optical transmitters to this map. With this approach, light source modulation frequencies can be estimated with sufficient accuracy to uniquely identify each source. Additionally, the inter-LED distance has an average accuracy of less than 10 cm compared to the real distance.