Indoor positioning with laser scanned models in the metal industry

In the current paper, we describe a three dimensional indoor positioning system for the metal industry. The developed system consists of a three dimensional map-based user interface scanned with Leica ScanStation 2, Chirp Spread Spectrum modulation (CSS) indoor positioning technology, and a used positioning algorithm. The system development process described in this paper includes three phases. Firstly, the modelling of three dimensional virtual environments with an accuracy of 2 centimeters required the use of point cloud processing software and 3D content creation. The next phase was to find reliable indoor positioning technology for harsh industrial conditions. The results reported in this paper show that a reliable positioning system using CSS could be created. Finally, location information provided by CSS was shown in the three dimensional map-based user interface. The user interface was based on CENTRIA´s Locawe platform. The process described in this paper shows that moving objects such as mobile robots, autonomous transporters or working machines can be tracked in a three dimensional virtual environment.