A Black-Box Positioning Solution for Effortless Integration in Wearable Navigation

Modern pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) systems rely on fusing noisy and biased estimates of position, velocity, and calibrated orientation derived from loosely coupled sensors to determine the current pose of a localized object. However, discrepancies in the sampling rates of sensor-specific estimation methods and unreliable transmission pose significant challenges. And traditional methods often fail to effectively fuse multimodal sensor data during dynamic movements characterized by high accelerations, velocities, and rapidly varying orientations. To address these limitations, we propose a simple recurrent neural network (RNN) architecture capable of implicitly forecasting asynchronous sensor data streams from diverse estimation methods along reference trajectories. The proposed approach introduces PDRNN, a modular hybrid AI-assisted PDR system that handles each component as an independent ensemble of machine learning (ML) models to estimate both key parameter means and variances. Separate ML-based models are employed to estimate orientation, (un)directed velocity or distance from acceleration and gyroscope data, with optional absolute positioning from synchronized radio systems such as 5G for stabilization. A final fusion model combines these outputs, position, velocity, and orientation, while using uncertainty estimates to enhance system robustness. The modular design allows individual components to be updated, fine-tuned, or replaced without affecting the entire system. Experiments on dynamic sports movement data show that PDRNN achieves superior accuracy and precision compared to classic and ML-based methods, effectively avoiding error accumulation common in black-box approaches. And PDRNN offers forecast capabilities and better component control despite increased system complexity.

Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) can be applied to indoor navigation systems. GPS suffers from signal degradation due to roofs and high-rise buildings, whereas PDR can estimate positions without being affected by such signal degradation. The accuracy of a foot-mounted AHRS(Attitude and Heading Reference System)-based PDR depends on the accuracy of the attitude estimation algorithm used in the AHRS. In this article, a Quaternion-Averaging-Based Adaptive Complementary Filter (QAACF) for PDR with a foot-mounted AHRS is proposed to improve estimation accuracy while reducing computational cost. QAACF fuses a quaternion derived from angular velocity with quaternions derived from acceleration and magnetic field measurements using Markley's quaternion averaging, which combines two quaternions more rigorously than linear interpolation. In addition, QAACF adaptively adjusts the weights of angular velocity, acceleration, and magnetic field measurements according to gait phases and the level of magnetic disturbances. Experimental results showed that the proposed QAACF achieves low Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs) compared to existing attitude estimation filters while requiring lower computational cost than Kalman filters.

Accurate and robust localization remains a fundamental challenge for autonomous ground vehicles. In this work, we propose a hybrid neural inertial navigation framework that integrates a wheel-mounted inertial sensors, enforced periodic trajectories, and a simple, efficient neural network capable of regressing vehicle displacement with GNSS position updates in an error-state extended Kalman filter. The periodic trajectories increase the inertial signal-to-noise ratio, allowing the network to use only inertial readings to estimate displacement. The approach is validated through real-world experiments using multiple wheel-mounted inertial sensors. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a significant improvement in positioning accuracy, reducing the position root mean squared error by approximately 46 % compared to standard wheel-mounted inertial sensor fusion with GNSS updates.