Estimation of Spatial Fields of Nlos/Los Conditions for Improved Localization in Indoor Environments

A major challenge in indoor localization is the presence or absence of line-of-sight (LOS). The absence of LOS, denoted as non-line-of-sight (NLOS), directly affects the accuracy of any localization algorithm because of the induced bias in ranging. The estimation of the spatial distribution of NLOS-induced ranging bias in indoor environments remains a major challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel crowd-based Bayesian learning approach to the estimation of bias fields caused by LOS/NLOS conditions. The proposed method is based on the concept of Gaussian processes and exploits numerous measurements. The performance of the method is demonstrated with extensive experiments.