This paper presents the sensor location and step estimation algorithm for personal navigation system (PNS). PNS has the disadvantage in that the position of the sensor must be fixed on a human body. Three-axis acceleration sensor is used to solve the disadvantage and to consider the real situation. We simplify the measurement data by using the band pass filter, witch It has the advantage in the detection of characteristic point. Through the detected characteristic points, it is possible to setup the parameter for the pattern detection. Depending on the sensor location, the parameters have the different type of noise covariance. Particularly, when the position of the sensor is changed, the impulse noise shows up. Considering the noise, we apply the recursive least square algorithm using the variable forgetting factors, which can classify the sensor location based on the estimated parameters. We performed the experiment for the verification of the proposed algorithm in the various environments. Through the experimental results, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.