Abstract: To address the problem of precise locomotive positioning in the switch area for mine switch machines under wireless control, this paper proposes a long-range radio (LoRa) assisted positioning method that integrates received signal strength indication (RSSI) and time difference of arrival (TDOA). First, an improved path loss factor is used to establish the RSSI ranging model, and a hybrid filtering method combining Kalman filtering, Gaussian filtering, median filtering, and mean filtering is applied to reduce noise interference. Then, the weighted centroid trilateration algorithm is used to initially determine the locomotive's coordinates. Finally, the TDOA Taylor series iteration method is employed to optimize the positioning accuracy. Experimental results show that after hybrid filtering, the ranging error within a 25 m range is less than 1.5 m, and the optimized positioning accuracy of the locomotive's coordinates reaches within 0.1 m. Experimental verification demonstrates that the fusion algorithm improves positioning accuracy compared to the single RSSI positioning algorithm, providing a new solution for accurate locomotive positioning in the switch areas and enhancing the safety and reliability of the mine's turnout machine wireless control system.

Key words: locomotive positioning, ranging algorithm, hybrid filtering algorithm, RSSI, TDOA, LoRa, wireless communication