Ultra-wideband location tracking of mobile devices

Abstract: Today’s most widely used tracking solutions for consumers involve the Global Positioning System (GPS) which meets most needs when it comes to rough estimation of location. GPS however is limited in accuracy with a horizontal error of around 5 meters and cannot be used in the areas where the satellites cannot provide a strong enough signal e.g. indoor areas or near mountains and other sources of blockage. Ultra-wideband (UWB) abolishes these two issues, providing an accuracy at centimeter level and works great in indoor areas. This thesis dives into the theory behind tracking devices with UWB and includes an implementation of the tracking as well as covers noteworthy issues, shortcomings, and future work. The app that is developed within this thesis runs on Android mobile devices and can locate and track another Android mobile device running the same app. Results were clear that the concept works, but more filtering needs to be done in order to remove the remaining noise.