2019 5th IEEE International WIE Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (WIECON-ECE)

Design and Implementation of Bluetooth-Beacon

Based Indoor Positioning System
Naga Sai Ravali Challa Padmapriya Kesari Supraja Reddy Ammana
Department of ECE Department of ECE Department of ECE
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of
University(JNTUK) University(JNTUK) Technology (CBIT)
Kakinada, India Kakinada, India Hyderabad, India
sairavalichalla@gmail.com padmapriyakesari@gmail.com ammana.supraja@gmail.com
Satyanarayana Katukojwala Dattatreya Sarma Achanta
Department of Biomedical Engineering Department of ECE
Osmania University Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT)
Hyderabad, India Hyderabad, India
kjwala@yahoo.com ad_sarma@yahoo.com

Abstract—Indoor Positioning System (IPS) has always been a II. METHODOLOGY

focused area of research due to an increasing demand for IPS in Standard bluetooth module (nRF 51822) is configured to
a variety of civilian and defence applications. Bluetooth low work as a BT-Beacon. Such beacons are deployed in the
energy beacons are best suited for IPS owing to their indoor corridor of the experimental area following the
compatibility with mobile devices such as smart phones. In this
paper, a standard bluetooth module is configured to work as a
standard procedure [10, 11, 12]. RSSI values of the beacons
Bluetooth-Beacon (BT-Beacons) and an IPS is implemented using within the range of user terminal, Mobile Unit (MU) are
the RSSI values of signals from the BT-Beacons. The position of acquired. The acquired RSSI values are sorted and the three
user in indoors is computed using the principle of trilateration. highest RSSI values are selected for computing the position of
The proposed system achieved good positioning accuracy and is MU. The three RSSI values (power levels) are converted to
economical. Further, the proposed system can be improved to distances using Friis free space model (Friis transmission
assist localization and navigation in indoor environment such as equation) and path loss model (path loss exponent ‘n’) [13].
huge buildings. The locations of the selected beacons are mapped to the
Cartesian co-ordinates to obtain the co-ordinates of the
Keywords—Bluetooth-Beacon, IPS, nRF 51822, RSSI,
Trilateration. beacons. The position of MU is found using trilateration
technique.
I. INTRODUCTION III. DESIGN OF BT-BEACON.
An Indoor Positioning System (IPS) can be used to locate nRF 51822 is a System on Chip (SoC) multi protocol and
people and objects in a building, by employing light waves, Uninterrupted Low Power (ULP) featured device developed
radio waves, acoustic signals, magnetic fields, or any other by Nordic Semiconductors. Using nRF 51822, a 6V DC power
sensory information [1]. As the operating frequencies of radio supply and a DC voltage regulator (LD 33) a PCB board of
waves used for Satellite Based Services (SBS) are difficult to BT-Beacon is designed and developed (Fig.1).
pass through the walls and ceilings of buildings, SBS are not
reliable in indoors. Therefore, wireless sensor networks based
IPS using Wi-Fi and bluetooth have became prominent [2, 3,
4]. Compared to Wi-Fi, bluetooth (BT) can indulge in wide
range of mobile devices. Bluetooth based positioning is
suitable for both iPhone Operating System (IOS) and Android
devices whereas Wi-Fi is only suitable for android. [5].
BT-Beacons are the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices
that transmits single radio signal repeatedly. These are
prominently used in Indoor Positioning. BT-Beacons integrate
the real world with mobile applications. IPS employing BT-
Beacons based on the principle of Received Signal Strength
Indication (RSSI) values is reliable [6, 7]. In this paper, a
bluetooth module is configured to act as a BT-Beacon. Using
these BT-Beacons an IPS is implemented to compute the
position of user terminal in indoors [8, 9].
Fig.1 nRF 51822 based BT-Beacon Board

978-1-7281-4499-3/19/$31.0 ©2019 IEEE 1

 This module is programmed using ST-Link/V2 (21mX3.5m) in the Research and Development centre of
programmer/debugger kit in ‘Keil’. Once the programming is Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT),
done, the status will be displayed in the ‘Build Output’ Hyderabad, India. Even though the beacons have an operating
window in Keil (Fig.2). range of 10m the RSSI values decreases with increase in
distance from beacon to the MU. Therefore, the beacons are
placed with a spacing of 5m between them. A total of 9
beacons (B1, B2, B3…….,B9) are deployed in the corridor,
such that the MU can receive RSSI values from at least three
beacons and the three beacons form a triangle to obtain
trilateration based position solution (Fig.5).
The RSSI values from the beacons are acquired on the MU
using an Android app ‘Locate Beacon’. These RSSI values are
Fig.2 Programming status in Keil sorted using a MATLab program to obtain the highest three
The performance of the beacon is tested using an android RSSI values (P1, P2, P3). The co-ordinates of the three beacons
app ‘nRF Beacon’. The function of this app is to detect the are considered as P1 (X1, Y1, Z); P2 (X2, Y2, Z) and P3 (X3, Y3, Z).
active beacons within the range and to display the list of The distances between the MU and the respective beacons d1,
beacons under ‘BEACONS’ tab. BT-Beacon signal detected d2, d3 are computed in two ways namely Friis free space model
(Friis transmission equation) and path loss model (path loss
by the app is displayed on the smart phone (Fig.3).
exponent ‘n’). A fixed height of Z=1m and n=1.9 are
considered. The position of the MU is obtained using the
principle of trilateration as [14]
݀ଵଶ ൌ ሺܺଵ െ ܺሻଶ ൅ ሺܻଵ െ ܻሻଶ ൅ ሺܼ ଶ ሻ ……….(1a)
݀ଶଶ ൌ ሺܺଶ െ ܺሻଶ ൅ ሺܻଶ െ ܻሻଶ ൅ ሺܼ ଶ ሻ ……….(1b)
݀ଷଶ ൌ ሺܺଷ െ ܺሻଶ ൅ ሺܻଷ െ ܻሻଶ ൅ ሺܼ ଶ ሻ ………..(1c)
The location of MU(X, Y)is given by
‫ܣ‬ሺܻଷ െ ܻଶ ሻ ൅ ‫ܤ‬ሺܻଵ െ ܻଷ ሻ ൅ ‫ܥ‬ሺܻଶ െ ܻଵ ሻ
ܺൌ
ʹሺܺଵ ሺܻଷ െ ܻଶ ሻ ൅ ܺଶ ሺܻଵ െ ܻଷ ሻ ൅ ܺଷ ሺܻଶ െ ܻଵ ሻሻ
‫ܣ‬ሺܺଷ െ ܺଶ ሻ ൅ ‫ܤ‬ሺܺଵ െ ܺଷ ሻ ൅ ‫ܥ‬ሺܺଶ െ ܺଵ ሻ
ܻൌ
ʹሺܻଵ ሺܺଷ െ ܺଶ ሻ ൅ ܻଶ ሺܺଵ െ ܺଷ ሻ ൅ ܻଷ ሺܺଶ െ ܺଵ ሻሻ
……………(2)
where,
A = ܺଵଶ ൅ ܻଵଶ -݀ଵଶ
B = ܺଶଶ ൅ ܻଶଶ -݀ଶଶ …………..(3)
C = ܺଷଶ ൅ ܻଷଶ -݀ଷଶ
V. RESULTS
Fig.3 nRF Beacon Android app showing BT-Beacon signal detection
A MATLab code is developed to compute the position of
IV. LOCATING THEBEACONS MU based on RSSI values and trilateration.
An experiment is carried out to compute the location of
MU in indoor environment using BT-Beacons in a corridor

Fig.4 Position of the MU computed using (a) Friis free space model (b) Path loss model

2
 Fig.5Schematic of the beacons in experimental area and the position of MU (Experiment done at CBIT College, Hyderabad)

Fig.4 shows the position of the MU computed. The with Friis free space model [Fig.6 (a)]. Using path loss
inputs to this plot are the ranges (distances from beacon to model the standard deviation is 0.37m in ‘X’ and 0.92m in
user). These ranges correspond to ideal Friis free space ‘Y’ [Fig.6 (b)]. The standard deviation value is low for the
model in [Fig.4 (a)] and path loss model in [Fig.4 (b)]. position computed using Friis free space model. Hence the
Therefore, the circular ranges are not same. The position of position obtained using Friis free space model is close to the
MU computed using Friis free space model is (1.89m, actual position measured physically (1.7m, 4m, 1m).
3.95m, 1m) and using Path loss model is (1.81m,
4.32m,1m). VI. CONCLUSION

Fig.5 shows the Schematic of the BT-Beacons in An nRF 51822 based BT-Beacon is designed and
experimental area and the position of MU. The highest developed to implement an IPS. The results show that the
power levels received to the MU are from beacons B1, B2, IPS worked well in estimating the position of user terminal.
B9. The experimental area is completely in line of sight. The estimated position is validated with the actual position.
Development of nRF 51822 based BT-Beacon is
economical and easy to configure. Further this work can be
extended to navigate inside huge buildings like industries
and in tracking applications. By integrating the GPS and the
sensor based positioning, both indoor and outdoor position
can be achieved in a single unit like Smart Phone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research work presented in this paper has been
carried out under the project sponsored bySpace
Application Centre (SAC), Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO), Ahmadabad, videsanction letter dated
23 Jan 2017 (Project ID. NGP-11), under NAVIC-GAGAN
Utilization program.

Fig.6 Computed Positionsof the MU using (a) Friis free space model
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