As long as there are valuable assets, companies will closely monitor their location. In fact, positioning systems (LFS) can be used to improve safety, productivity, and efficiency in retail, logistics, healthcare, smart buildings, and more. LFS is often based on wireless "tags" that can be applied to almost any item, person, or many applications.
To name a few use cases, let’s say tracking packages in a logistics process or critical materials in a manufacturing environment, monitoring the location of high-value instruments in a lab or hospital, and determining if someone has entered a restricted area (e.g., certain areas of a factory may Danger). LFS can help retailers improve their layout by tracking and analyzing the flow of customers through the store or using self-checkout.
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LFS wireless technology
LFS is inseparable from wireless technology, but several technologies on the market have their own advantages and disadvantages. When choosing a technology, designers have to make a trade-off between coverage and power consumption, which is especially important since wireless tags are often battery-powered.
RFID can be used for location, but its primary use is to verify the identity of an asset (such as the color and style of clothing) at specific checkpoints. If security requirements are high, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is usually the first choice. However, the large amount of computational processing also drives up costs and power consumption.
Since the 5G network covers the globe, it supports tracking assets over long distances. But it does consume huge amounts of power, so its applications in this area are relatively limited.
Bluetooth® is a recognized technology deployed in billions of devices around the world. Over time, the technology has been improved to reduce power consumption and control costs through high-volume production. In fact, Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) is now one of the most popular asset tracking technologies.
Bluetooth-based LFS - Overview and Design Criteria
Bluetooth-based LFS systems are typically used in buildings such as warehouses, factories, medical facilities, or retail stores. Regardless of the system, there are usually three elements:
1. Tags attached to assets;
2. Multiple locators;
3. Positioning engine.
Designers must consider resolution, latency, and battery life when designing LFS, repeatedly weighing the pros and cons to meet system requirements for accuracy, efficiency, and performance.
The most significant factor affecting resolution is the number of sensors/locators; the more sensors/locators, the more accurate the position measurement.
Latency refers to how quickly a tag/asset is found, which is related to how often the signal is transmitted. Increasing the transmission frequency will reduce latency, but will also increase power consumption.
Battery life is affected by the output power and duration of each transmission and the tag's ability to take advantage of a low-power "sleep" mode.
If an asset is moving quickly, latency needs to be reduced (transmission frequency increased) to obtain accurate positioning. But this comes at the cost of battery life. More sophisticated systems could integrate accelerometers into tags to increase the transmission frequency only when the asset is moving. This provides the best of both worlds, balancing positioning accuracy with rational battery usage.
Design flexibility
Because each application is unique and technology advances so quickly, LFS designs must be flexible enough to allow trade-offs between parameters and adjustments as needed. To support this need for flexibility, ON Semiconductor has developed a design platform with industry partners.
This partnership integrates ON Semiconductor's award-winning RSL15 with CoreHW antenna modules and Unikie Localization. This RSL15 Bluetooth 5.2 wireless MCU is designed for connected smart devices and is based on the ultra-low power ARM® Cortex®-M33 processor. RSL15 achieves ultra-low-power Bluetooth performance according to EEMBC benchmarks. This, coupled with its compact size, makes it ideal for edge applications such as positioning labels.
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