Silvia Mirri

The global population is progressively entering an aging phase, with population aging likely to emerge as one of the most-significant social trends of the 21st Century, impacting nearly all societal domains. Addressing the challenge of assisting vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled in carrying or transporting objects has become a critical issue in this field. We developed a mobile Internet of Things (IoT) device leveraging Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology in this context. This research directly benefits vulnerable groups, including the elderly, disabled individuals, pregnant women, and children. Additionally, it provides valuable references for decision-makers, engineers, and researchers to address real-world challenges. The focus of this research is on implementing UWB technology for precise mobile IoT device localization and following, while integrating an autonomous following system, a robotic arm system, an ultrasonic obstacle-avoidance system, and an automatic leveling control system into a comprehensive experimental platform. To counteract the potential UWB signal fluctuations and high noise interference in complex environments, we propose a hybrid filtering-weighted fusion back propagation (HFWF-BP) neural network localization algorithm. This algorithm combines the characteristics of Gaussian, median, and mean filtering, utilizing a weighted fusion back propagation (WF-BP) neural network, and, ultimately, employs the Chan algorithm to achieve optimal estimation values. Through deployment and experimentation on the device, the proposed algorithm’s data preprocessing effectively eliminates errors under multi-factor interference, significantly enhancing the precision and anti-interference capabilities of the localization and following processes.