ALO: An ultrasound system for localization and orientation based on angles

This paper presents a low cost system based on ultrasound transducers to obtain the localization and orientation information of a mobile node, such as a robot, in a 2D indoor space. The system applies a new differential time of arrival (DTOA) technique with reduced computational cost, which is called ALO (angle localization and orientation). Instead of directly calculating its position, the system calculates the direction of arrival of the received ultrasonic signal and, through it, its position and orientation. A prototype of a robot has been built in order to show the validity of the method through experimental results.