INDOOR POSITIONING AND GUIDANCE SYSTEM BASED ON EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY MAGNETIC FIELD BEACONS AND MOBILE DEVICES, AND ASSOCIATED METHOD

The present invention relates to an indoor positioning and guidance system based on extremely low frequency, ELF, magnetic fields, and an associated method. The system comprises a plurality of beacons (1), and at least one receiver (2) adapted to be carried by a user. The beacons (1) comprise at least one ELF receiving coil (11), at least one ELF generation coil (12), an ELF field generator (13) and a power control means (14) connected to the ELF generation coil (12). The receiver (2) comprises a magnetometer sensor (5) adapted to detect ELF field signals transmitted by the ELF generation coil (12). Advantageously in the invention, the ELF field generator (13) is further adapted to generate ELF field signals comprising: one or more positioning subcarriers (15); one or more beacon-receiver subcarriers (16); and one or more inter-beacon subcarriers (17) configuring an inter-beacon communications channel for managing information exchanged between neighbouring beacons (1).