Documentation — FITARNA

Project Overview

FITARNA (Florida Institute of Technology AR NAvigation) is a cross-platform mobile AR application that provides real-time, turn-by-turn indoor navigation using the smartphone camera.

The app renders directional waypoints as 3D AR overlays anchored to real-world coordinates, guiding users through building interiors without requiring any dedicated hardware beyond a modern iOS or Android device.

Unity 2022 LTS AR Foundation 6.x iOS + Android C# / TypeScript

Architecture

The system is divided into three layers that communicate at well-defined interfaces:

[ Mobile App — Unity / C# ] AR camera feed → plane detection → localization pathfinding → 3D waypoint rendering (URP) UI (TextMesh Pro) → input handling [ Backend — TypeScript ] REST API → floor-plan JSON → POI registry serves building map data to the app at runtime [ Platform AR Runtimes ] iOS : ARKit (via Unity ARKit XR Plug-in) Android : ARCore (via Unity ARCore XR Plug-in)

Key Components

AR Session — managed by AR Foundation's ARSession and ARSessionOrigin components, which abstract over ARKit/ARCore and provide a unified world coordinate space.

Pathfinder — takes a destination POI and the user's current world position, queries the floor-plan graph, and returns an ordered list of 3D waypoints.

Waypoint Renderer — uses Unity's LineRenderer and instanced meshes to draw the navigation path in the AR scene, styled via the Universal Render Pipeline.

Map Service — a lightweight TypeScript backend that stores building floor plans as JSON and exposes them via HTTP so the app can load the correct map on demand.

Tools & Technologies

Unity

Unity Core

Unity Documentation Official Unity Manual & Scripting API ↗ AR Foundation 6.2 Cross-platform AR framework used for plane detection & session management ↗ XR Plug-in Management 4.5 Manages loading and lifecycle of XR provider plug-ins ↗ Universal Render Pipeline (URP) Render pipeline used for AR overlay shaders and visual effects ↗ Input System 1.14 Handles touch input and device-specific gesture detection ↗ TextMesh Pro High-quality text rendering used for in-AR labels and UI ↗ Line Renderer Renders the navigation path as a 3D line through the AR environment ↗ Localization Package Internationalization support for UI strings ↗ Unity Web Request Used to fetch floor-plan data from the TypeScript backend at runtime ↗

AR SDKs

Platform AR Runtimes

ARCore XR Plug-in 6.2 Unity plug-in bridging AR Foundation to Google ARCore on Android ↗ ARCore (Google) Google's AR platform SDK — used for Android builds ↗ ARKit XR Plug-in 4.2 Unity plug-in bridging AR Foundation to Apple ARKit on iOS ↗ ARKit (Apple) Apple's AR platform SDK — used for iOS builds ↗

Programming Languages

Languages Used

C# Unity scripting — game logic, AR session management, pathfinding ↗ TypeScript Backend map service & this project website ↗ Swift Native iOS integration and platform-specific extensions ↗ Kotlin Native Android integration and platform-specific extensions ↗ HTML / CSS This project website ↗

Data Formats & Tooling

Formats & Supporting Tools

JSON Floor-plan and POI data format exchanged between the backend and app ↗ YAML Configuration and build pipeline definitions ↗ Bash Build scripts and CI automation ↗ CSS Website styling with custom token-based theming ↗

Repository

The full source code — Unity project, backend service, and website — is hosted on GitHub. Issues, pull requests, and the project board are all managed there.

View on GitHub ↗