Abstract

Satellite positioning systems such as GPS have made outdoor navigation highly accessible. They enable us to find destinations, locate services, and support technologies like autonomous vehicles and delivery tracking. However, once indoors, these systems no longer function reliably. Determining one’s position inside a building is a different challenge altogether. Indoor positioning systems aim to address this need and have found applications in environments such as airports, hospitals, shopping centres, and warehouses. They support tasks like navigation, asset tracking, smart building management, and robotic automation.

Despite their growing relevance, most indoor positioning systems are isolated solutions that rely on different technologies and proprietary software. As a result, they are often limited to a single building or use case and cannot easily be reused elsewhere. Users frequently have to install separate applications or accept new conditions to access these systems, leading to a fragmented experience and raising privacy concerns. For building managers and developers, the high cost and complexity of deploying such systems can be a barrier to adoption. Moreover, the lack of standardisation makes it difficult for systems to share data or work together effectively.

This dissertation investigates how to improve the interoperability of indoor and outdoor positioning systems. It proposes a framework for enabling consistent and seamless exchange of location data across different platforms and technologies. The research introduces new machine-readable vocabularies that make it easier for systems to interpret and share information about locations. It also explores methods for systems to discover each other and exchange data without requiring prior coordination, increasing flexibility and reducing dependence on tightly integrated setups.

An important aspect of the proposed solution is the emphasis on user control. By supporting privacy-aware data management and reducing reliance on closed, vendor-specific applications, the framework aims to offer a more open and user-centric alternative. The ultimate goal of this research is to support the development of a unified ecosystem for positioning systems, where location data can be managed and shared efficiently across various contexts while preserving trust and interoperability.

Members of the Jury

• Prof. em. Dr. Olga De Troyer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Chair)
• Prof. Dr. Elisa Gonzalez Boix, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Secretary)
• Prof. Dr. Beat Signer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Supervisor/Promoter)
• Prof. Dr. Bart Jansen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Prof. Dr. Pieter Colpaert, Ghent University
• Prof. Dr. Kris Luyten, Hasselt University

Relevant Publications

• (Under Review) Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. OpenHPS: A Modular Framework to Facilitate the Development of FAIR Positioning Systems. Journal of Open Source Software, June 2025. doi: 10.21105.joss.08113
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. OpenHPS: An Open Source Hybrid Positioning System. Technical Report WISE-2020-01, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2020. doi: 10.48550/ARXIV.2101.05198
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. Indoor Positioning Using the OpenHPS Framework. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN 2021), 2021. doi: 10.1109/IPIN51156. 2021.9662569
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. POSO: A Generic Positioning System Ontology. In Proceedings of the 21st International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2022), Virtual conference, 2022. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-19433-7_14
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. A Solid-based Architecture for Decentralised Interoperable Location Data. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN 2022), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, volume 3248, 2022. URL https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3248/paper11.pdf
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. SemBeacon: A Semantic Proximity Beacon Solution for Discovering and Detecting the Position of Physical Things. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Internet of Things (IoT 2023), 2023. doi: 10.1145/3627050.3627060
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. Discoverable and Interoperable Augmented Reality Environments Through Solid Pods. In Proceedings of the 2nd Solid Symposium (SoSy 2024), volume 3947, May 2024. URL https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3947/short2.pdf
• Yoshi Malaise, Maxim Van de Wynckel, and Beat Signer. Towards Distributed Intelligent Tutoring Systems Based on User-owned Progress and Performance Data. In Proceedings of the 2nd Solid Symposium (SoSy 2024), volume 3947, May 2024. URL https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3947/short3.pdf
• Maxim Van de Wynckel, Isaac Valadez, and Beat Signer. FidMark: A Fiducial Marker Ontology for Semantically Describing Visual Markers. In Proceedings of The Semantic Web (ESWC 2024), 2024. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-60635-9_14
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. OpenHPS: Single Floor Fingerprinting and Trajectory Dataset, May 2021. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4744380
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. Survey on the Privacy and Transparency of Location Data, May 2025. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.15564050
• Maxim Van de Wynckel. Garage Positioning Dataset, 2025. doi: 10.34740/KAGGLE/DS/6654647
• Maxim Van de Wynckel and Beat Signer. Sphero Dead Reckoning and CV Tracking Dataset, 2025. doi: 10.34740/KAGGLE/DS/6760212
• Benjamin Vermunicht, Maxim Van de Wynckel, and Beat Signer. 802.11 Managemement Frames From a Public Location, June 2023. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.8003771
• Nathan Hoebeke, Maxim Van de Wynckel, and Beat Signer. Object Tracking on a Monopoly Game Board, June 2023. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7990434