Development of a Testbed for Foot Mounted Based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) Systems

Over the last several years of research into the field of Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR), there have been varying degrees of success in providing a viable individual navigation system. The PDR solutions developed utilize everything from a single Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) to several IMUs with additional sensors. One specific PDR solution identified that by utilizing a micro-mechanical Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) on each foot (along with the application of Zero Velocity Updates (ZUPT) and foot-to-foot range measurements) a reliable method of PDR tracking could be accomplished. Their study concludes that further evaluation is required for this foot-mounted solution to be viable as a wearable PDR system. In order to better deliver a viable wearable system, this research focuses on the development of a PDR testbed that can be utilized to evaluates a variety of sensors and techniques.