Goals & Topics
Novel techniques based on concurrent transmissions (CTX) enable protocols for multi-hop networks with a level of performance (reliability, latency, energy) that is orders of magnitude higher than conventional ones. However, before the NG-UWB project, CTX had been mainly studied with narrowband radios, and were never explored for ranging or localization. On one hand, for communication, we aimed to understand whether, with appropriate techniques, CTX can enable better performance or new functionalities in UWB compared to narrowband. For ranging and localization, the objective was the development of concurrent schemes based on the channel impulse response (CIR) provided by UWB radios, more performant than the conventional ones based on single transmissions.
UNITN
Bluetooth consumes very little energy but is inaccurate for localization, while UWB is the opposite. The primary objective was to exploit this complementarity through dual-radio systems. We applied our dual-radio approach in real use cases such as social contact tracing during the pandemic and in proximity warning systems. A secondary objective was the analysis of the recently-introduced Bluetooth Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) to understand how its performance compares with UWB.
UNITN UNIBS
UWB systems track the movement of devices on people, vehicles, and objects within an area delimited by nodes (anchors) in direct communication with one another and whose position is known. The aim was to develop a system based on the time-difference-of-arrival (TDoA) capable of covering large areas without requiring direct communication between predefined sets of anchors, increasing scalability and flexibility of the system without detriment to accuracy.
UNITN
The accuracy of TDoA depends on the temporal synchronization between anchors. Unlike the previous objective, where in-band synchronization via UWB was envisaged to reduce infrastructure costs, here the aim was to define techniques to minimize the temporal error with standard wired protocols (PTP) and dedicated hardware.
UNITN UNIBS
We aimed to exploit the high spatial-temporal resolution offered by UWB to extract information on the movement of people, especially where and how long they stop (stop-move). The case study was the Science Museum of Trento (MUSE), where the UWB infrastructure was installed, which enabled the analysis of 1500 trajectories of as many visitors.
UNITN UNIMI
The distances measured between UWB devices in the presence of obstacles (non-line-of-sight, NLOS) are less accurate. This applies to generic obstacles (e.g., walls) but also to the human body, as emerged in the contact tracing and museum visitor tracking cases, where the device is worn. We develop techniques capable of recognizing the NLOS conditions and, where possible, automatically compensate for the error.
UNITN POLITO
UWB has attracted considerable interest for robot navigation or drone flight. Therefore, a first objective was to develop new techniques and prototypes to improve the performance of traditional systems. In addition, innovative systems were explored to support drone landing, as well as approaches in which the anchors themselves are mobile, mounted on drones or deployed and re-positioned by robots.
UNITN POLITO