Locata: A high accuracy indoor positioning system

Accurate indoor positioning is required for a variety of commercial applications, including warehouse automation, asset tracking, emergency first-responders, and others. In fact, the general expectation of users today is for "GPS-like" positioning performance anywhere they go. The inherent limitations of GPS signal availability indoors and in satellite-occluded environments, however, has forced researchers to investigate alternative technologies which may be able to replicate GPS/GNSS performance indoors. A new terrestrial RF-based distance measurement technology, trademarked "Locata", has overcome the technical challenges required to create "a localised autonomous terrestrial replica of GNSS". Signals from the Locata network are seen by receiver devices as equivalent to (but totally independent from) the GNSS satellite constellation(s). This technical paper describes indoor positioning results with the latest generation of Locata positioning devices. The results demonstrate that Locata's technology enables cm-level positioning in severe multipath environments where conventional high-accuracy radiopositioning has previously been impossible.