A 3-D high accuracy positioning system based on visible light communication with novel positioning algorithm

A novel indoor positioning system (IPS) with high positioning precision, based on visible light communication (VLC), is proposed and demonstrated with the dimensions of 100 cm×118.5 cm×128.7 cm. The average positioning distance error is 1.72 cm using the original 2-D positioning algorithm. However, at the corners of the test-bed, the positioning errors are relatively larger than other places. Thus, an error correcting algorithm (ECA) is applied at the corners in order to improve the positioning accuracy. The average positioning errors of four corners decrease from 3.67 cm to 1.55 cm. Then, a 3-D positioning algorithm is developed and the average positioning error of 1.90 cm in space is achieved. Four altitude levels are chosen and on each receiver plane with different heights, four points are picked up to test the positioning error. The average positioning errors in 3-D space are all within 3 cm on these four levels and the performance on each level is similar. A random track is also drawn to show that in 3-D space, the positioning error of random point is within 3 cm.