RTLS Case Studies: What are people doing with our systems?

1. Metro Transit Bus Depots

Minneapolis, MN, USA
Sensors: 450
Accuracy: 100cm in 2D
Solution: Transit Yard Manager (TYM)

Problem: Buses were being manually located and their location input into the Scheduling and Dispatching System using a paper mark-up sheet which was often out of date.

The Ubisense Solution: Each bus of the 1000 buses of Metro Transit is tagged allowing the Ubisense platform to determine an exact bay, lane, and position of each bus, as soon as it is parked inside the garage and in some outdoor areas. Dispatchers have real time visualization of vehicles for assignment.

Results: Elimination of need for dedicated search personnel in each of the five Metro Transit garages.
Faster and more reliable information about bus location.
Assistance in determining bus departure and arrival times and time spent in maintenance.


 2. BNFL Nuclear Power Facility
Sellafield, UK
Sensors: 8
Accuracy: 30 cm in 3D
Solution: Ubisense Location Platform for personal tracking & radiation dosimters for radiation measurements.

Problem: Sellafield is one of the 20 aging U.K. nuclear facilities being decommissioned. Employees involved in decommissioning and clean-up within the facility are exposed to fluctuating radiation. It is vital to ensure that the amount of radiation to which they are exposed during any one work period remains below the specified limits.

The Ubisense Solution: Employees carrying out work assignments at the power plant wear both Ubisense Tags and WiFi dosimeters, which measure radiation levels. BIL Solutions' software provides views of the facility, which radiation levels depicted in different colors combining location data from Ubisense RTLS with the radiation readings. Workers' dose histories are monitored real-time as an aid to scheduling their work in the plant.

Results: The radiation maps and real-time exposure records significantly improve worker safety and efficiency of the operation.

3. Posco Finex Plant

Pohang, Korea
Sensors: 80
Accuracy: 100cm in 3D
Solution: Ubisense Location Platform for personnel tracking and identification

Problem: In a huge processing plant like this blast iron furnace with multiple floors and complex processing units, worker safety is a prime concern.

The Ubisense Solution: Workers have Ubisense Tags attached to their safety helmets. A combination of precise tracking on five floors of the plant and presence detection on seven other floors improves the safety of each person- help can quickly be guided to lonely workers in case of an emergency. The Ubisense system is integrated with the IBM WebSphere Premises Server solution LAS to bring real-time location information to the plant control room.

Results: Greatly improved worker safety in the plant.