IOT Sensors & Gateways

Hardware Gateways & Sensors

The components used in each individual RTLS, as well as the RF standards and characteristics of those components can vary. Factors such as performance requirements, like accuracy, latency, range, throughput, as well as the complexity of a deployment and desired use cases dictates what type of RTLS components and specific technology will best address your needs. However, most location-tracking solutions share these core components – anchors, tags/transmitting devices and a location engine. In addition to those core components there are also modular RTLS components that can be integrated into IoT devices and applications to enable customized RTLS-enabled devices and solutions that meet the needs of specialized use cases and unique end-user requirements.

Gateway Readers

Are deployed in fixed positions to detect and locate signals from transmitting RTLS tags and devices. To accurately determine a tag’s real-time location, each anchor within its communication range will read and often timestamp the received signals, and then exchange this information with the location engine to calculate the tag’s position. In addition to being able to receive communication, certain RTLS anchors can also transmit data to other devices, enabling you to do things like wireless configuration, firmware flashing, and sending data to a tag to manipulate actuators like LEDs or even machines, allowing for more versatile applications.

wireless devices that are equipped to people, assets, equipment, inventory or mobile objects to help determine their location. RTLS tags send data encoded signals at continuous intervals to RTLS readers that then forward this information to the location engine to determine its position. Tags come in different shapes and sizes, such as in form factors like asset tags, beacons, ID badges and more. Certain tags come equipped with additional embedded sensors and long-lasting internal batteries that allow for more flexible applications.

Location Engine

RTLS Software that processes the received location and IoT data from the RTLS hardware. Different location engines leverage different techniques to calculate the position of a tracked person or objects, delivering actionable intelligence that can be integrated into IoT applications and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) .

Pre-built Transceivers that can be integrated into custom RTLS anchors, tags and connected devices. This helps organizations reduce development complexity and the time to solution required in building their own tailored RTLS-enabled devices. For example, an organization can easily integrate a module into their own proprietary tag design, activating real-time location tracking capabilities with hardware that meets their unique needs, functional and compliance requirements.

RTLS Modules

RTLS Transceiver Chips

Essentially the brain of an RTLS-enabled device. Inside RTLS hardware they power the wireless communication that makes real-time locating possible. The chips serve as the starting point for development of custom RTLS devices. From them, organizations can design their own tailored RTLS-enabled device, such as a location tracking tag, allowing them to develop and build RTLS hardware with complete flexibility and control to create proprietary devices that meet their exact needs, functional and compliance requirements.

Smart IoT sensors can be added into RTLS devices and applications to extend RTLS-enabled solutions even further. These sensors deliver additional IoT data that when paired with the derived location data, enriches the intelligence a deployed RTLS uncovers. This includes sensors built directly into RTLS devices, such as accelerometers, temperature sensors, or battery readers in a tracking tag, as well as auxiliary IoT sensors that monitor conditions such as temperature and humidity.

IoT Sensors

BLE

BLE has unique characteristics that have made it one of the most popular technologies RTLS. BLE has a large presence in wireless devices, an extensive set of low-power, low-cost, and easy to implement hardware options, and the flexibility to be used in many location-based applications. BLE Indoor positioning solutions use either BLE-enabled sensors or beacons to detect and locate transmitting Bluetooth devices, such as smartphones or tracking tags throughout indoor spaces. Location data collected by the sensors or sent from beacons to mobile devices is then ingested by various locating applications and translated into insights that power multiple location-aware use cases.

TW systems can reach an accuracy of around 2 to 3 m (6 to 10 ft) – or sub meter by using unique direction finding methods based on BLE angle of arrival and Triangulation algorithm or Ultra-wideband(UWB) based on Time of Flight (ToF). As accuracy demands can vary from one area to another, TW allows you to control the level of accuracy simply by altering the number of readers according to environment (types of wall/celling height).

For example, in inventory management it’s often enough to know that the assets are present or are in an approximate area, which only few gateway readers .But you may need a more accurate position in the loading dock, and that can be achieved by adding some more Gateways to that area.

Accuracy

Real Time

Real-time is a flexible concept. For a standard TW system, it means a location update rate of up to 10 Hz, and latency down to 100 m/s. That, coupled with our superior accuracy, enables many security and safety related applications.

The TW system itself doesn’t have any limitations, and the tag can be configured to transmit for example 10 Hz or even higher and the latency can be 100 m/s or less.

As the TW Ovitag is interoperable with Bluetooth® wireless technology, it can track any Bluetooth® enabled device that is transmitting a specified radio packet. For example, smartphones can be made trackable just by adding a few lines of code to the application.

TW Tag IDs can also be read by Bluetooth devices without the help of Gateways . For example, a doctor could read a patient’s ID Tag directly using a smartphone to request critical information from a cloud service.

Bluetooth Interoperability

Open Tag Design

TW allows total freedom in tag design. You can choose between multiple ready-made tags by TW or our tag partners, integrate our QT1 Tag Module into your device, or design your own tag using our firmware libraries and schematics. Basically, any Bluetooth® enabled device can be made TW -trackable with minor software modifications.

TW own Tag is a great solution, fit for most purposes. It’s lightweight, shockproof, waterproof and easy to attach with straps, lanyards or other fastening methods. However, the design or available features are not necessarily optimal for all use-cases.

The TW system is easy to integrate into existing systems with pull or push APIs that offer standard JSON formats. The API is fully open and configurable, and even comes with an editor.

The TW APIs can expose whatever data that tag sensors are recording: heart-rate, gyro, compass, magnetometer, barometer, temperature, humidity etc.

Thanks to Bluetooth® Low Energy technology, TW Tags consume very little energy.

A TW Tag can transmit one packet per second for 3 years(CR2477). That makes roughly 93 million transmissions in total.

Using the onboard sensors or geofencing areas to only activate the tag when needed, can extend the battery lifetime by several years. Often, the battery manufacturer’s specification for the maximum lifetime becomes the limiting factor.

Long Battery Life

Maintenance Free

Once installed, the TW system normally requires no physical maintenance. The system is constantly monitoring itself and can send an alert if attention is needed.

The Gateways have inbuilt accelerometers, so if they are moved the system will know. If a Locator is offline, the system will know. In the case of a power failure, the system will even perform an automated recovery.

The TW system is interoperable with Bluetooth® wireless technology, so even standard mobile devices can be made trackable by the system. [However, the 2.4 GHz band range is very crowded, so operating on these radio channels is not a trivial task. The advanced proprietary algorithms used by the TW Intelligent Locating System™ are what make it a very robust and reliable solution, even in the most demanding environments.

The system is continuously in use in challenging environments, such as fully packed trade shows and stadiums and has been confirmed interference-free of other systems.

When tracking high-speed objects, the TW system can be configured to provide faster update rates, and is also immune to any interference from other Bluetooth devices or any other wireless systems such as WiFi or wireless microphones.

Interference Free

IOT Gateways

In addition to location tracking, the TW system can be used as a gateway to the Internet of Things (IoT), receiving and exposing data from a wide range of Bluetooth® sensors.

As more and more Bluetooth® radio equipped devices are connected to IoT systems, sending out information about themselves and their surroundings, they can all be made visible to the TW system. If these devices have any sensors on board – which they pretty much always do – the sensor data can also be received by the TW system and exposed through our open and configurable API.