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How can I track a device's location (x,y,z coordinates) as well as the direction the device is facing (north, south, up, down, etc.)?

Standard accelerometers are not precise enough for very small scale (personal hand-held devices) and tend to drift.

In addition, satellite GPS is not available in the location where this device would be used.

Air
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Thom Blair III
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1 Answers1

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There are several way to address your question, on such way is to use a

  1. Magnetometer to track North, West, East, South etc
  2. Barometric Pressure Sensor to measure up & down (elevation)
  3. Accelerometers to track motion/speed

Depending on your application our sensing elements can be added to improve accuracy.

Also take a look a the concept dead reckoning. Algorithm developed using dead reckoning can address the lack of GPS satellite signal. Dead reckoning is commonly used in automotive navigation application as well as some enterprise handheld applications. I also responded to a similar post on electrical engineering stackexchange, and link is listed below.

References

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Mahendra Gunawardena
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    Before relying on magnetics for direction bearings, ensure the area where the device will be used does not have anomalous magnetic fields, whether natural or otherwise. [Mag Anomalies] (http://survinat.com/2013/01/magnetic-anomalies-and-anomalous-zones/), [US Mag Anom Maps] (http://mrdata.usgs.gov/magnetic/) – Fred Aug 01 '15 at 02:24