Visible Light Positioning for Location-Based Services in Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 refers to the evolution in manufacturing from computerization to fully cyberphysical systems that exploit rich sensor data, adaptive real-time safety-critical control, and machine learning. An important aspect of this vision is the sensing and subsequent association of objects in the physical world with their cyber and virtual counterparts. In this paper we propose Visible Light Positioning (VLP) as an enabler for these Industry 4.0 applications. We also explore sensing techniques, including cameras (and depth sensors), and other light-based solutions for object positioning and detection along with their respective limitations. We then demonstrate an application of positioning for real time robot control in an interactive multiparty cyber-physical-virtual deployment. Lastly, based on our experience with this cyberphysical-virtual application, we propose Ray-Surface Positioning (RSP), a novel VLP technique, as a low cost positioning system for Industry 4.0.