Final colloquium Maxime Hoekstra

Title: Sensor fusion for position estimation of artists on stage by coupling data from two UWB/IMU sensors

Supervisor: Dr. Manon Kok

Abstract:

In recent years, the rapid development of wireless communication technology in smartphones

and wearables has enabled many applications for user localization and tracking. One such application is in the theatre industry, where real-time high-accuracy tracking of artists on stage can be used to enable spotlights to automatically follow an artist’s movement on stage.  Ultra-Wideband (UWB) systems are used for this purpose, but the position estimation accuracy decreases when the sensors operate in a Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) environment. To prevent the body from blocking the UWB signals, two UWB tags can be placed on the hips of the artist to average the two estimated tag positions. Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) offer an additional means for location tracking, providing inputs to calculate position, velocity, and orientation estimates independent of the environment, but suffer from accumulative error due to integration drift. This thesis studies how the position tracking accuracy with UWB data can be improved by incorporating IMU sensor data. Additionally, the thesis investigates how the two tags can be coupled to correct for each other’s inaccuracies. Hence the thesis studies how the tightly coupled fusion of two UWB/IMU sensors, attached to a person’s hips, can be used to improve position tracking accuracy compared to using two loosely coupled UWB tags.