call for competition 2026
Francesco Potortì
Potorti at isti.cnr.it
Thu Mar 26 22:02:09 CET 2026
* * * CALL FOR COMPETITION 2026 * * *
Thirteenth IPIN Competition
onsite, online and offline Indoor Localization
<https://competition.ipin-conference.org>
online and offline: 28-30 Dep, EvaalAPI web service
onsite: 3-4 Oct (tentative), Rome (IT)
awards: 8 Oct, IPIN conference
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The International conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Localization
(IPIN) is pleased to announce the thirteenth IPIN Indoor Localization
Competition. The competition is aimed at bringing together the academic and
industrial research communities for evaluating different approaches and
envisioning new methods for indoor and seamless localisation, an area where no
generally accepted standards yet exist.
The competition builds on the experience of previous competitions and is based
on the EvAAL framework, ensuring experience, solidity and a well-founded
scientific method. The IPIN 2026 Indoor Localization Competition consists of
several Tracks:
• Track 1: Smartphone (onsite)
• Track 3: Smartphone (online)
• Track 4: Foot-mounted IMU (online)
• Track 6: Smartphone on vehicle (onsite)
• Track 7: 5G CIR with Sparse References (offline)
Results will be presented during dedicated sessions of the IPIN conference,
during which prizes will be awarded to the winners. Prizes are awarded for a
total worth to be announced.
ONSITE TRACKS
The onsite competition will take place in Roma, before the IPIN conference. An
actor carries the competing system by moving in the competition area. Competing
systems process data and provide position estimates in real time. Survey of the
area and system calibration is restricted to a single day, before the
competition proper.
Track 1 – Smartphone: An actor walks a mostly indoor route carrying the
competitor's smartphone which runs the competing system, using the sensors
available on the smartphones to identify the user's position.
Track 6 – Smartphone on vehicle: An actor carries a smartphone while walking a
mostly indoor route and driving along a partly indoors, partly outdoors with
impaired GNSS route, with the smartphone affixed to the car dashboard. The
smartphone sends sensors data in real time to a dedicated server, while at the
same time competitors get their data in real time from the same server.
OFFSITE TRACKS
Competitors in offsite competitions (online and offline) are provided with
sensors data and use them to estimate the user position. Competitors calibrate
their algorithms in advance using ground truth reference data (testing trials)
and compete using new unreferenced data (scoring trials). Scoring trials are
run on a Track-specific day.
Once testing trials are published, competitors can run them at their premises.
When the EvaalAPI server is made available, they must run the testing trials on
it. Scoring trials are provided to competitors only once they complete a run of
the testing trials.
ONLINE TRACKS
Competitors run their trials through the EvaalAPI in online mode to emulate the
causal, real-time behaviour of onsite Tracks. See the paper "Offsite evaluation
of localization systems: criteria, systems and results from IPIN 2021-22
competitions" for a conceptual overview.
Track 3 – Smartphone: A pedestrian walking under realistic conditions in
buildings with possibly small outdoor parts, using data provided by a
conventional smartphone.
Track 4 – Foot-mounted IMU: A pedestrian carries ULISS (Ubiquitous Localization
with Inertial Sensors and Satellites) on his foot while walking a path with
possible small outdoor parts. ULISS provides IMU, magnetic and pressure
readings plus GNSS data. No maps are provided.
OFFLINE TRACK
Competitors run their Trials through the EvaalAPI in offline mode, where
competitors download sensors data all at once and have a limited time to upload
all estimates at once.
Track 7 – 5G CIR with Sparse References: 5G CIRs are collected from eight
distributed antennas in a multipath-rich maintenance facility, with only a
sparsely labeled reference set, which can be addressed by pertaining or channel
charting.
TECHNICAL COMPETITION DETAILS
The evaluation criteria for the competition, restrictions on the accepted
technologies, technical rules and a description of the benchmarks are detailed
in the technical annexes to this call. Possible refinements of the annexes,
even based on applicants' comments, will be distributed on the competition
discussion mailing list contest at evaal.aaloa.org and will appear on the
competitions site <https://competition.ipin-conference.org>.
Competitors in online and offline Tracks get sensor readings and submit position
estimates through the EvaalAPI web service <https://evaal.aaloa.org/evaalapi>.
The aim is to emulate a causal process similar to the data flow of an onsite
Track: input data can be read only once and only in sequence, and the timestamp
of each submitted position estimate is the same as the latest sensor reading.
All the data gathered by the competition committee during the competition,
including data produced by competing systems in online and offline Tracks, may
be published after the competition for the purpose of research and comparison.
Winners of the competition are announced on the IPIN web site and on the contest
mailing list.
COMPETITOR ADMISSION PROCESS
A competitor can be any individual or group of individuals working as a single
team, associated to a single or a number of organizations, who wants to
participate in one or several tracks. Only one team from the same organisation
(laboratory) is allowed to compete.
Competitors apply for admission to the competition tracks at
https://competition.ipin-conference.org/current-competition/application by
providing a short (2 pages in PDF) technical description of their localization
system, including a description of the algorithms and protocols used. Track
chairs will accept or refuse the application in a short time, based on technical
feasibility and logistic constraints.
After acceptance of the competitor's technical description, one member of the
competing team is required to register on the IPIN conference site, specifying
the Track to which the registration is linked. Full registration to the
conference covers participation in the competition process for one Track
(allotted time, support and space) and the submission of one paper describing
the system. Participation in additional Tracks can be added for an additional
fee. A reduced registration fee not including access to the conference is
available for online and offline Tracks.
Competitors who wish to test their onsite system which does not fit any of the
onsite tracks may ask chairs of Track 1 to be admitted off-track, which will be
granted subject to organisational constraints.
Be sure to subscribe to the contest mailing list to get updates on the
competition: http://evaal.aaloa.org/mailman/listinfo/contest
IMPORTANT DATES
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Technical annexes published: 1 Apr
Application opens: 1 Apr
Testing trials published (online, offline) 1 Apr
Application closes: 21 Sep
EvaalAPI server available: (online, offline) 1 Apr
Testing trial completed (online, offline) 15 Sep
Online and offline competition: 28 - 30 Sep
Onsite survey and sw integration: 3 Oct
Onsite competition: 4 Oct
Proclamation of winners: 8 Oct
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COMMITTEES
IPIN Competition committee:
Antonino Crivello – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Miguel Ortiz – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Joaquín Torres-Sospedra – Universitat de València (ES)
Francesco Potortì – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Track chairs:
Track 1 Filippo Palumbo – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Davide La Rosa – ISTI-CNR (IT)
Track 3 Joaquín Torres-Sospedra – Universitat de València (ES)
Antonio R. Jiménez – CAR, CSIC (ES)
Track 4 Miguel Ortiz – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Ni Zhu – GEOLOC Team, University Gustave Eiffel (FR)
Track 6 Wenchao Zhang – AIR-CAS (CN)
Ji Xinchun – AIR-CAS (CN)
Track 7 Jonas Pirkl – Fraunhofer IIS (DE)
Andreas Eidloth – Fraunhofer IIS (DE)
More information about the Contest
mailing list