Localization of bluetooth smart equipped assets based on building information models

Abstract

Indoor positioning systems are utilized to locate physical objects indoors without using GPS. Their applications include but are not limited to industry, business, and healthcare. This paper provides an analysis of a model and simulation of an indoor localization method which tracks physical assets relying on Bluetooth Smart. The system receives the desired building’s floor plan and the materials of all walls and surfaces from the Building Information Model. The walls and surfaces have their own particular radio frequency (RF) absorption efficiency and transmission loss; when any propagated wave signal reaches a barrier, some of the signal will be reflected, some will be absorbed, and the rest will be transmitted through the barrier. This study implements the floor plan of a building and simulates the reflection and transmission of all signals (building’s RF fingerprint map). To do so, the system generates a mesh for each Bluetooth reader, and calculates the level of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for any points on the mesh. For each of these points, the simulation shows the propagation of RF signals in all directions and finds the summation of signals that may reach the reader to find the RSSI of that point.