Ubisense "cruises" to automotive success

Cambridge, 23 August, 2010 - Ubisense, the world Leader in Precise Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) supports a weekend of spectacular motoring events, including the Ramshackle Rally, Valencia and the Woodward Dream Cruise, Detroit.

Driving a highly decorative, Ubisense-sponsored car, purchased for only £ 150, Pascal Green joined the Ramshackle Rally Valencia to raise funds for Cancer Research.  The rally involves driving 1450 miles and taking part in daily challenges to score points.  At the end of the rally the team with the most points win, and all of the participants join the finale at the La Tomatina festival in Bunol, just outside Valencia.

Ubisense Americas’ team and CEO, Richard Green were also representing the company, in support  of their Strategic Partner, the world-leading industrial tool manufacturer, Atlas Copco at the world’s largest automotive cruise, the Woodward Dream Cruise, held annually in Detroit.

The Woodward Dream Cruise attracts almost two million visitors every year and is a haven for car fanatics cruisin’ along the 16 miles of Woodward Avenue, enjoying the attractions, and viewing a number of corporate sponsors demonstrating their products along the sidewalk areas. This year’s event clearly demonstrated an uplifted mood of anticipation throughout the industry.

Ubisense counts many automotive manufacturers, including BMW, Aston Martin, Fiat, Daimler and most recently General Motors amongst its customers and partners, and were very pleased to be able to support Atlas Copco at the event

Ultrawideband Industry Expert joins Ubisense as it continues to expand its North American team

Denver, US, 10 August 2010 - Ubisense, the world Leader in Precise Real-Time Location Systems announces the appointment of Adrian Jennings as VP RTLS Technology to its Americas team.

Following the award of significant deals with Brampton Transit, Boeing, and BMW along with further deployments at General Motors, REC Silicon, Cummins, and the US Army, Ubisense continues to extend its team with top industry talent.

Jennings most recently held the position of CTO at Time Domain Corporation, an ultrawideband pioneer in location and radar applications. He is also widely acknowledged as one of the world’s experts in UWB technology and industry-building, and has taken a lead role in defining the standards for real-time locating systems as part of the IEEE standards committee.

A member of the IEEE RFID standards committee Adrian has a deep technical insight, and a thorough understanding of ultrawideband markets and applications, and he hopes to work across the industry to build consensus and accelerate market adoption.

Jennings’s primary responsibilities will include supporting the Americas sales team in promoting Ubisense solutions, and helping to consolidate customer and market requirements to support the UK engineering team in defining product roadmaps and strategy. Jennings will also continue to support the global standardization of ultrawideband RTLS technology.

“We are delighted that Adrian has decided to join our talented management team for Ubisense Americas,” said Russ Chandler, CEO Ubisense Americas. “This will help to solidify Ubisense’s position of leadership within the RTLS business.”

Eximia win RFID Security Award for Ubisense based Meerkat

Cambridge, UK, 6 August 2010 - Italian specialist RFID company Eximia, has been awarded the RFID Award 2010 for Innovation, for their Meerkat personnel safety monitoring system. Meerkat is based on the award-winning Ubisense solution.

"The Meerkat product has been developed to closely monitor and ensure access for authorised personnel in hazardous environments such as refineries, power plants, mines, shipyards, inland terminals and airports,” says Dariush Behboudi, CTO of Eximia,  “The system ensures personnel can only gain access to areas for which they have the proper work permit. The system also records all activity, both in terms of position and video.  Meerkat includes an alarm system, which is triggered if there is any deviation from standard operational procedure."

Meerkat is currently being used to monitor activities within a very large maintenance hangar of a major Italian airline. The introduction of the system has allowed the hanger access policies to be constantly reviewed: each employee wears an ultra-wideband (UWB) Ubisense Tag, which is encased in a leather wallet bearing the company badge, and must always be exposed to view.  The Ubisense system identifies the location of the individual at around 50cm accuracy in 3D within a 100m x 100m hangar.

The Meerkat system integrates optical and thermal imaging cameras for video surveillance, motion detection and pattern recognition, measuring temperature, pressure and the unique ID of each badge.
"Meerkat manages and integrates information from different technologies,” continues Behboudi, “such as DCS, SCADA, PLC, ERP systems, supervision and control, video surveillance platforms and utliises localisation platforms such as Ubisense UWB and GPS to provide real-time positioning. The dashboard allows Meerkat to display spatial information alongside summary tables."

In addition to improving overall process monitoring and quality assurance, the system decreases the overall risk to passengers and crew, and a number of other advantages have also been noted such as increasing security at work, more efficient risk management and a proven audit system which can be used in any potential reconstruction during risk investigations.

Finally, complete visibility of the hangar and all personnel provides additional security in the event of an accident.  The system is now in daily operation and it is expected that Meerkat will be extended to the airline’s other hangars in the near term.