Simultaneous localization and mapping for pedestrians using low-cost ultra-wideband system and gyroscope

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a promising positioning system that has undergone massive research development in recent years. Most UWB systems assume prior knowledge on the positions of the UWB anchors. Without knowing the anchor positions, an accurate position estimate of a user is difficult. Hence, this paper presents a novel simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) approach for pedestrian localization using a UWB system, where the locations of the anchors are unknown. We fuse the distance estimates of the UWB system with heading information obtained from an inertial measurement unit (IMU). We evaluate the proposed algorithm based on measurements with a moving pedestrian and fixed anchors with unknown positions. The evaluations show that an accurate position estimation of both the pedestrian and the anchors is possible without any prior knowledge on the anchor positions.