TLB and WC-TLB-MM: The Improved Min-Max Algorithms for Multi Targets Indoor Localization

Internet of Things (IoT)-based Indoor localization is the most commonly used system to determine target locations indoors. It applies to various purposes, e.g., indoor navigation, asset tracking in warehouse management, and tracking people in hospitals. Distance-based techniques using the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), e.g., Min-Max, are widely applied because they can be directly implemented without prerequisite work such as site surveys. However, a challenging indoor environment with high numbers of interiors and people can obstruct signal propagation. This obstruction can reduce the accuracy of translating RSSI to distance using the path loss model, which will degrade the localization accuracy. In this paper, we introduce two improved Min-Max (MM) algorithms, i.e., Three Layer Bounding Box Min-Max (TLB-MM) and Weighted Centroid TLB-MM (WC-TLB-MM), to alleviate the issue and achieve higher localization accuracy. The novelty of the proposed TLB-MM is incorporating RSSI error functions to generate three-layer bounding boxes: the inner, middle, and outer in the Min-Max algorithm. Meanwhile, WC-TLB-MM enhanced the TLB-MM algorithm by integrating the Weighted Centroid Localization Algorithm (WCLA) in the calculation process. We validate our proposal by conducting various experiments using Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz deployed in a laboratory room of 10.17 m �9.12 m. Experimental results demonstrate that TLB-MM improved the accuracy performance to 55.78% and 30.86%, while WC-TLB-MM gave 40.93% and 7.65% compared to Min-Max and WCLA, respectively. From these results, our proposed methods are proven simple yet applicable to RSSI-based indoor localization systems.