The International conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Localization (IPIN) is pleased to announce the twelfth IPIN 2025 Indoor Localization Competition.  The competition is aimed at bringing together the academic and industrial research communities for evaluating different approaches and envisioning new methods for indoor and seamless localisation, an area where no generally accepted standards exist yet.

The competition builds on the experience of previous competitions  and is based on the EvAAL framework, ensuring experience,  solidity  and  a  well-founded scientific method.   The IPIN 2025  Indoor Localization Competition  consists of several Tracks:

• Track 1: Smartphone (onsite)

• Track 3: Smartphone (offsite-online)

• Track 4: Foot-mounted IMU (offsite-online)

• Track 5: Smartphone with Navigation Robot (offsite-online)

• Track 6: Smartphone on vehicle (offsite-onsite survey)

• Track 7: 5G CIR + IMU (offsite-offline)

Results  will be  presented during  dedicated sessions  of the  IPIN conference, during which prizes will be awarded to the winners.
 

ONSITE TRACK

The  onsite   competition  will   take  place  in   Tampere,  before   the  IPIN conference. An actor carries the competing  system by walking in the competition area.  Competing systems  process data locally, without using  any external aid, and provide  position estimates  in real  time.  Survey of  the area  and system calibration is restricted to a single day, before the competition proper.

Track  1 –  Smartphone: The  actor walks  carrying a  smartphone which  runs the competing system, using the sensors available on the smartphones to identify the user's position.

OFFSITE WITH ONSITE SURVEY TRACK

Track 6 – Smartphone on vehicle: A pedestrian carries a smartphone from an indoor office, walks through corridors and stairs to an underground garage, mounts it on the vehicle's inside front, drives through urban areas, returns to the garage, then retrieves the phone and walks back to the office — all with positioning via smartphone sensors throughout the process."

OFFSITE TRACKS 

Competitors in offsite competitions are provided  with sensors data and use them to  estimate  the user  position.   Competitors  calibrate their  algorithms  in advance using ground truth reference data (testing trials) and compete using new unreferenced data (scoring trials).  Scoring  trials are run on a Track-specific day.

Once testing trials  are published, competitors can run them  at their premises. When the EvaalAPI server is made available,  they must run the testing trials on it.  Scoring trials are provided to competitors only once they complete a run of the testing trials.

OFFSITE-ONLINE TRACKS

Competitors in offsite competitions are provided  with sensors data and use them to  estimate  the user  position.   Competitors  calibrate their  algorithms  in advance using ground truth reference data (testing trials) and compete using new unreferenced data  (scoring trials).  Competitors  run their trials  through the EvaalAPI in  online mode to  emulate the  causal, real-time behaviour  of onsite Tracks.  Scoring trials are run on a Track-specific day.  See the paper "Offsite evaluation  of localization  systems: criteria,  systems and  results from  IPIN 2021--22 competitions" for a conceptual overview. Prizes are awarded for a total worth to be announced. 

Track 3  – Smartphone:  A  pedestrian  walking  under realistic  conditions  in buildings  with  possibly  small  outdoor   parts,  using  data  provided  by  a conventional smartphone.

Track 4 – Foot-mounted IMU: A pedestrian carries ULISS (Ubiquituous Localization with Inertial Sensors  and Satellites) while walking a path  with possible small outdoor parts.   ULISS provides  IMU, magnetic and  pressure readings  plus GNSS data. No maps are provided.

Track 5 – Smartphone with Navigation Robot: A pedestrian in a museum records PDR and VIO  data provided by  a conventional  smartphone. A navigation  robot moves with/around the pedestrian and provides its location and UWB ranging/AoA between the smartphone.

OFFSITE-OFFLINE TRACKS

Competitors  run  their Trials  through  the  EvaalAPI  in offline  mode,  where competitors download sensors data all at once  and have a limited time to upload all estimates at once.

Track 7 –  5G  CIR  + IMU:  A  pedestrian with  a  smartphone  moves through  a warehouse-like  environment in  LOS  and NLOS  conditions  and observes  Channel Impulse Response and IMU data.

 

TECHNICAL COMPETITION DETAILS

The evaluation criteria for the competition, restrictions on the accepted technologies, technical rules and a description of the benchmarks are detailed in the technical annexes to this call. Possible refinements of the annexes, even based on applicants' comments, will be distributed on the competition discussion mailing list contest(at)evaal.aaloa.org and will appear on the competition site.

Competitors in offsite Tracks obtain sensor readings and submit position estimates through the EvaalAPI web service. The aim is to emulate a causal process similar to the data flow of an onsite Track: input data can be read only once and only in sequence, and the timestamp of each submitted position estimate is the same as the latest sensor reading.

All the data gathered by the competition committee during the competition, including data produced by competing systems in offsite Tracks, will be published after the competition for the purpose of research and comparison. Winners of the competition are announced on the IPIN web site and on the contest mailing list.

COMPETITOR ADMISSION PROCESS

A competitor can be  any individual or group of individuals  working as a single team,  associated  to a  single  or  a number  of  organizations,  who wants  to participate in one  or several tracks. Only one team  from the same organisation (laboratory) is allowed to compete. 

Competitors apply for admission to the competition tracks at the IPIN conference site  by providing  a short  (2  pages in  PDF) technical  description of  their localization system,  including a  description of  the algorithms  and protocols used.  Track chairs will accept or refuse the application in a short time, based on technical feasibility and logistic constraints.

After acceptance  of the competitor's  technical description, one member  of the competing team is  required to register on the IPIN  conference site, specifying the  Track to  which  the  registration is  linked.   Full  registration to  the conference  covers  participation  in  the competition  process  for  one  Track (allotted time,  support and space) and  the submission of one  paper describing the system.  Participation  in additional Tracks can be added  for an additional fee.   A reduced  registration fee  not including  access to  the conference  is available for offsite Tracks.

Competitors who wish to test their onsite  system which does not fit any of the onsite tracks may ask chairs of Track 1 to be admitted off-track, which will be granted subject to organisational contraints.

Be  sure  to subscribe  to  the  contest mailing  list  to  get updates  on  the competition: http://evaal.aaloa.org/mailman/listinfo/contest

News and updates are posted to the contest mailing list.

IMPORTANT DATES (tentative)

IPIN COMPETITION COMMITTEE

Francesco Potortì – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Antonino Crivello – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Miguel Ortiz – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Joaquín Torres-Sospedra – Universitat de València (ES)

Track chairs:
Track 1  Filippo Palumbo – ISTI-CNR (IT), Davide La Rosa – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Track 3  Joaquín Torres-Sospedra – Universitat de València (ES)
Track 4  Miguel Ortiz – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR), Ni Zhu – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Track 5  Satoki Ogiso – AIST (JP), Ryosuke Ichikari – AIST (JP)
Track 7  Maximilian Stahlke – Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (DE), Andreas Porada – Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (DE)