Top 10 technologies for indoor positioning on construction sites

Indoor positioning complements the mature outdoor positioning technology, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), by achieving real-time positioning in any environment under a blockage of GNSS signals. In the construction management field, this paper demonstrates that indoor positioning enables five significant applications that considerably enhance work efficiency and safety on construction sites. Without a perfect indoor positioning system and under complicated site environment, developing a suitable on-site indoor positioning system is challenging and essentially user-oriented and environment-specific. This paper analyses the challenges to implement on-site indoor positioning systems, and proposes indoor positioning performance metrics, namely APP CAT, for evaluating indoor positioning systems. The fundamental indoor positioning principles are first discussed and evaluated. Subsequently, the top 10 indoor positioning technologies, selected by their performance in APP CAT and their popularity, are thoroughly compared. The promising trends of indoor positioning development, e.g., indoor positioning hybridization, game theory positioning, and integration with BIM models, are highlighted.