Localization using a Particle Filter and Magnetic Induction Transmissions: Theory and Experiments in Air

Abstract

Localization is a key ability for robot navigation and collision avoidance. The advent of technologies such as GPS have led to many improvements in terrestrial navigation. Unfortunately traditional electromagnetic (EM) communications propagate poorly through lossy media such as underwater and underground. Therefore, localization remains a challenging problem in such environments, necessitating other approaches such as acoustics and magnetic induction (MI). This paper investigates estimating the relative location of a pair of MI triaxial coil antennas in air, as a preliminary step to underwater applications. By measuring the voltages induced in the receiving antenna when the transmitting antenna's coils are turned on sequentially, the distance between the antennas can be computed. Then, with knowledge of the current velocities of the antennas, we can apply a particle filter to generate an estimate of the location of the transmitting antenna with respect to the receiving one. The theory is supported by simulations and later verified through a series of experiments.