Beacon-Based Fuzzy Indoor Tracking at Airports

Abstract

An application of Bluetooth beacons is here proposed to perform real-time tracking of the locations and movements of airport staff through different monitored airport infrastructure elements, such as rooms, terminals or boarding gates. With respect to this, the aim is to provide an efficient location service of airport workers and users through an indoor tracking controller based on fuzzy logic. For this purpose, a mobile application and a Web service have been implemented. This location knowledge may be decisive while performing common airport procedures or managing airport resources, staff or emergency situations aiming at ensuring a short response time. Likewise, the proposed system integrates an operational module of coordination to facilitate the communications of users at the airport. Besides, particular attention has been paid to the security of communication between mobile devices and the Web service, both regarding secure authentication of users and protection of confidentiality of information exchanged between airport staff.

Keywords

• beacons
• indoor tracking
• fuzzy logic
• real-time operations
• airports
• emergency situations