Tenth IPIN Competition
onsite and offsite Indoor Localization
23-24 September 2023, Nuremberg (DE)

The International conference on Indoor  Positioning and Indoor Localization (IPIN) is pleased to announce the tenth IPIN 2023 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 2023 Indoor Localization Competition consists of three categories of contests: onsite, offsite-online, offsite-offline:

• Track 1: Smartphone (onsite)
• Track 3: Smartphone (offsite-online)
• Track 4: Foot-mounted IMU (offsite-online)
• Track 5: Smartphone (offsite-offline)
• Track 6: Smartphone on vehicle (offsite-online)
• Track 7: 5G CIR (offsite-online)
• Track 8: 5G ToF (offsite-online)

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

ONSITE TRACK

The competition will take place in Nuremberg, during the Sunday before the IPIN conference. An actor carries the competing system by walking in in a predefined 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 Saturday.

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

OFFSITE-ONLINE TRACKS

Competitors 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 the usual online mode to emulate the causal, real-time behaviour of onsite Tracks.  Scoring trials are run on a Track-specific day during the second week of September.

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 the ULISS (Ubiquituous Localization with Inertial Sensors and Satellites) Inertial Navigation System producing IMU magnetic and pressure readings plus GNSS data, without the help of any maps, with possibly small outdoor parts.

Track 6 – Smartphone on vehicle: A smartphone affixed to a car dashboard records sensors and impaired GNSS data on a partly outdoors, partly indoors route.

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

Track 8 – 5G in open-plan office: A pedestrian with a smartphone in hand or on a stick receives ToA data in an open-plan office.

OFFSITE-OFFLINE TRACK

Competitors 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 the new offline mode, where competitors download sensors data all at once and have a limited time to upload all estimates at once.  Scoring trials are run on a Track-specific day during the second week of September.

Track 5 – Smartphone: A pedestrian in  a commercial facility records PDR and BLE data provided by a smartphone for offline estimation of the walked path.

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 and will appear on the EvAAL web site.

Competitors  in  offsite  Tracks  obtain sensor  readings  and  submit  position estimates through  the EvaalAPI web  service. For offsite-online Tracks, 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.  For offsite-offline  Tracks, the aim is to emulate a batch process with constrained computation timing.Competitors calibrate their algorithms in advance using ground truth references (test trials), and compete using new unreferenced data (scoring trials).

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 EvAAL and IPIN web sites and on the contest mailing list. Scientific publishing opportunities will be offered to competitors.

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 applies to participate in one or several Tracks. Only one team from a given organisation (laboratory) is allowed to compete.

Competitors apply for admission to the competition tracks by providing a short (2 to 4 pages) technical description of their localization system in PDF, which includes a description of the algorithms and protocols used. The technical description must be sent by e-mail to the chairs of the intended track, which is indicated in the relative annex.  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 to the IPIN conference, specifying that the registration is linked to a competition track.  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 a second Track can be added for an additional fee, see the IPIN registration page.

Competitors who are authors of an accepted paper will be allowed some time after the conference for updating it before publication (to be confirmed).

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 depending on organisational contraints.


News and updates are posted to the contest mailing list.

IMPORTANT DATES