Indoor Positioning System Using BLE Beacons

Abstract

This thesis provides a viable solution to the challenge of real-time estimation of people's positions inside a building during emergency situations. Such estimates can be extremely valuable to emergency responders by potentially reducing evacuation times and increasing the chance of saving lives. To provide rescuers with this information, an indoor positioning system using BLE beacons was implemented. Real-time updates is made accessible through a modern web application. By introducing a method to continuously calibrate the path loss exponent, an acceptable accuracy was obtained, where more than 70% of the position estimates had less than 2 meters of error. A manual search operation would put rescuers and victims at unnecessary high risks. By using the proposed system, rescuers can save time, which is critical in any emergency response operation.