Accuracy assessment of Ultra-Wide Band technology in tracking static resources in indoor construction scenarios

The use of Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) tracking systems for construction site applications has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. However, to enable an effective application, it is important to establish the accuracy of its location estimation and its performance under sub-optimal conditions of construction sites. Expanding on previous research, this research studied the performance of an UWB tracking system in static mode under conditions that can commonly occur on construction sites, namely; the presence of metal objects that reflect UWB signals; best signals being blocked by other objects; tracking metal objects; removing the timing cables; tracking multiple tags simultaneously, and decreased number of receivers. A series of experiments were conducted in which the impact of each condition was simulated by changing a variable. The accuracy and the relative error of location estimations for each experiment were calculated. With one exception, an accuracy of less than a meter was achieved in all the experiments. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.