Reliable Visible Light-Based Underground Localization Utilizing a New Mechanism: Reverse Transceiver Position

Traditional visible light-based positioning technology of deploying the receiver under the transmitter (i.e., LEDs deployed on the top and photodetectors deployed on the ground) in the mine tunnel is unreliable for optical signal reception and difficult to implement due to the complex mine tunnel environment such as occlusion of objects (e.g., Ore and Minecarts) on the ground. To address this issue, we propose a reliable visible light-based underground positioning algorithm that uses a novel reverse transceiver position mechanism, i.e., utilizing the existing miner’s headlamp as the transmitter below and the photodiodes deployed on the top of the mine tunnel as the receiver above for broadcasting and receiving the light beacon representing miner’s identity information. We determine the current location of each person through a series of base stations constructed by the receiver and achieve real-time positioning of all people combined with inertial navigation. We also overcome some technical challenges for this mechanism and the mine environment, including optimal frequency selection, robust frequency identification, and accurate base station positioning. The experiments show that the average positioning error of the base station is 0.06 m and the real-time location accuracy is 98% error of 2.5 m or less.