Evaluation on Nonholonomic Constraints and Rauch–Tung–Striebel Filter-Enhanced UWB/INS Integration

Abstract

Precise and seamless positioning is becoming a basic requirement for the Internet of Things (IoT). However, there is a gap for precise positioning in Global Navigation Satellite System- (GNSS-) denied indoor areas. Thus, a multisensor integration system based on ultrawide-band (UWB), inertial navigation system (INS), nonholonomic constraints (NHCs), and Rauch–Tung–Striebel (RTS) smoother is proposed. In this system, the UWB performs as the major precise positioning system, while the INS bridges the UWB-degraded and UWB-denied periods. Meanwhile, the NHC restrains the drifts of INS, while the RTS smoother further upgrades the navigation accuracy. The contributions of this article are as follows. First, it presents the robust least square- (RLS-) based UWB positioning. The proposed method is effective in mitigating the impact of the effect of non-line-of-sight (NLOS), which is one of the most significant error sources for UWB positioning. Second, it derives the mathematical model of the UWB/INS/NHC/RTS integration, which is new compared to the existing approaches. Results illustrate that the proposed system can provide centimeter-level positioning accuracy, millimeter-level velocimetry accuracy, and accuracy of better than 0.05 and 0.15 degrees for horizontal and vertical attitude angles, respectively. Even in the scenario with short-term UWB outages (30 s), simulation results show that the three-dimensional position still can be better than 20 cm. Such accuracy values reach the state-of-the-art for indoor positioning using UWB and INS.