Disruptive Technologies Mean A Fast Changing Landscape for Utilities

Article by Peter Batty; originally published in Geospatial World, http://ow.ly/G0xl8 The major growth in Web and mobile applications is starting to have significant impact in the utility sector. But, will this disruption in the technological environment help the utility sector in simplifying their solutions?  The geospatial industry is currently going through substantial changes, and these are starting to have a significant impact in the utility sector, as well as other industries. Clayton Christensen talks about the idea of “disruptive technologies” in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. He describes examples from many industries of how technologies which were initially regarded as too “low end” for mainstream users improve in functionality and performance over time, to the point where they can meet the needs of users in the mainstream market, and can start to displace the previous generation of more complex solutions, typically with a simpler and lower cost approach. Google Maps is a prime example of a disruptive technology in the enterprise geospatial market: it was initially focused on the simpler consumer market, but it, and other similar systems, have grown in capability and now have many applications in the enterprise. Another way of looking at changes happening in the IT market is the idea of consumer-led IT. It used to be the case that technology innovations would happen first in enterprise systems and then later these would flow to the consumer. But the consumer technology market is now so large that innovations tend to happen first there. Google Maps is one example, as just mentioned. Another is the huge growth in smartphones and tablets which was driven by the consumer market, and while adoption in the enterprise is growing, it still lags significantly behind. The Web mapping revolution ▶ Google Maps: Launched in 2005, Google Maps dominated the consumer web mapping space due its ease of use and performance, together with an easy mechanism to incorporate it into third party websites. A common complaint I have heard from utility GIS users is “why isn’t our expensive GIS as fast and easy to use as Google Maps?” In recent years we have started to see more use of Google Maps, and other similar modern Web mapping technologies, in utility environments. This is typically in addition to a traditional GIS: the Web application makes that data available to a much larger number of users. The ease of use and familiarity of a Google Maps style solution is extremely important in being able to roll out this type of solution to many users in an enterprise, who typically are not familiar with GIS. A key aim should be that users can use at least basic features of the system without any training. A danger is that “GIS experts” sometimes have a tendency to add too many features and too much complexity to web applications, which can overwhelm the typical user. ▶ Open source software: There are various alternatives to Google Maps that provide a similar style of simple Web map, including Bing Maps and MapQuest. There are also multiple open source software solutions, including the Leaflet and OpenLayers JavaScript libraries, which are very widely used by Web developers. In general, there are lot of geospatial open source software components available now that have the capabilities and robustness to be used in serious enterprise applications — widely used server side components include GeoServer and the PostGIS spatial relational database. In some cases, utilities are directly implementing solutions based on these components, in others third party software vendors are building utility focused solutions on top of them. ▶ Enterprise mashups: Web applications commonly make use of lightweight integration techniques to pull data from multiple websites, an approach that is often known as a “mashup”. Similar techniques can be used in the enterprise to visualise many different datasets on the same map. Examples in utilities include jobs, outages, crew locations, customer information and more. Location provides a link between these different datasets that can provide insights that would not otherwise be apparent. For example, an electric utility might look at how its recent tree-related outages relate to vegetation management operations over the past year. Example of electric network data overlaid on Google Map backdrop, and integrated with Google Street View In general, it is much simpler to share data between different geospatial systems than it used to be, which makes it much easier for enterprises to implement solutions from multiple geospatial vendors. In many cases the large established GIS vendors may not have a strong incentive to embrace disruptive lower cost web solutions from Google and others — this is part of the classic “innovator’s dilemma” that Clayton Christensen wrote about. ▶ The mobile revolution: Mobile geospatial applications in utilities are currently undergoing substantial change. Widely available wireless network communications enable real-time communication to and from field workers, which opens up many possibilities for significantly improving business processes. When combined with the growth in smart network- connected devices on utility networks (smart meters, intelligent switches and sensors, etc), everyone in a utility, either in the office or in the field can have a near real time view of the current state of the enterprise. Many of the established field mapping solutions at utilities pre-date Google Maps and modern wireless networks, and are geared to downloading data periodically and working offline, rather than working with real time data. Of course, the ability to work offline when needed is a key requirement, but newer systems are designed to work either online or offline as needed. Managing large amounts of offline geospatial data remains something of a challenge — there is just inherently quite a lot of administration needed to keep hundreds or thousands of offline copies of a large geospatial database in sync. A new technology that shows promise for offline working is HTML5, the latest Web technology which is supported across all modern browsers. This provides the ability to store a moderate amount of data offline in the browser — not enough for large portions of a typical utility’s territory, but enough to store data for a small number of electric circuits say, or a typical day’s worth of jobs. HTML5 offline capabilities are still somewhat immature and differ across browsers, but over the next few years as this technology develops and wireless network coverage continues to improve, it is likely that the role of HTML5 offline storage will grow, relative to the traditional download and sync of large data volumes. One thing worth noting is that Google terms of service specifically prohibit use of either its data or code offline, which limits its applicability for utility field applications. The open source libraries Leaflet or OpenLayers are alternatives that can be used offline, and for basemap data, OpenStreetMap provides a good alternative. Another key trend in mobile applications is the use of tablets and smartphones, rather than laptops or quite limited PDAs or GPS devices used in older generation field applications. With high-quality touch screens and built in wireless communications, GPS and cameras, modern tablets are excellent devices for field applications. A challenge here is that the mobile market is quite fragmented in terms of operating systems, with Android, Apple’s iOS and Microsoft all having a reasonable presence in the enterprise market. No clear winner has yet emerged in this space, and there is also a trend towards “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD), where employees can use their personal phones or tablets for business applications. All of these factors combine to make a cross-platform mobile strategy, with applications that can run across all these operating systems, a desirable approach. Web-based applications work in this regard of course. Handling offline work in a cross platform way is a little more effort. There are some cross platform development tools such as PhoneGap, or its open source equivalent Apache Cordova, which enable applications to be compiled from HTML and JavaScript into native applications on all of these platforms. Phonegap also provides a means to have greater access to the mobile device, including local storage, than is available via a web application. Utility mapping application running on an iPad

▶ Crowdsourcing: Another interesting development that has grown primarily in the consumer space, but increasingly has application in the enterprise, is the use of crowdsourcing for creation and maintenance of geospatial data. The best known example is OpenStreetMap, a map of the world that is free to use and can be edited by anyone. In many parts of the world its quality is as good as or better than commercial equivalents.

One impact of OpenStreetMap is simply in its potential for use as a basemap layer in enterprise applications, especially offline where alternatives like Google Maps cannot be used. But it is also significant in that it has shown that good quality map products can be created by non-specialist users without any special training. The lesson for enterprises here is that it makes sense to enable more users of the data, especially users in the field, participate in contributing corrections to data if they find errors. In the past it has generally been assumed that most field workers did not have the skills to do these sort of updates, but OpenStreetMap has shown that this is not the case, especially where users have a vested interest in seeing the data improved, which utility field workers do.

Another good example of crowdsourcing is for damage assessment, after a storm or other incident. All smartphones now have the ability to take geotagged photos, that have a GPS coordinate stored with them indicating where they were taken. It is easy to load and display such pictures on a map, either by asking people to email them, upload them to a website, or by pulling photos from social media sites like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. This can provide a very rich source of data for quickly evaluating the extent of damage.

Summing up
Currently, the most active area of change in the utility geospatial market is in web and mobile applications, leveraging the major technology changes that have been seen in these areas in recent years. Major benefits can be achieved with a relatively small incremental investment, by expanding use of geospatial data to many more users and many more business processes. Technology originating in the consumer market, both software and hardware, is having a major influence.

There is not major change in backend traditional GIS platforms — in general these are well entrenched, with a lot of customisation and integration with other systems. There is little obvious benefit to changing, and a lot of cost to do so.

As smart grid technologies roll out over the coming years, there may be more change in backend systems, as there is more pressure to handle real time data. Currently network applications are handled by a mix of GIS, OMS (Outage Management Systems), DMS (Distribution Management Systems), EMS (Energy Management Systems), SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion), and MDMS (Meter Data Management Systems), with varying degrees of integration between them. It seems as though there should be opportunity to rationalise the number of systems involved, but this is a complex challenge both technically and in terms of organisation and process issues.

- See more at: http://geospatialworld.net/Magazine/MArticleView.aspx?aid=31228#sthash.en8SZNg4.dpuf

Contactless Technologies Conference – Lille, France

Ubisense Real-Time Location and Manufacturing industry experts Christian Raux and Hubert Peyre presented at the Contactless Technologies Conference in Lille this week. The event, held on December 9, was entirely dedicated to indoor location technologies.

Ubisense is a global leader in Enterprise Location Intelligence solutions for Manufacturing, Communications and Utilities companies. We enable some of the world’s largest businesses to improve operational effectiveness, significantly increasing their profitability. Christian and Hubert were among the few speakers at the event who were demonstrating the powerful benefits of location intelligence solutions in industrial applications.

Ubisense engineers have over 30 combined years of in-service operation with our flagship product Smart Factory, which is used by top automotive and aerospace companies around the world. Smart Factory is a production-certified system, designed specifically to help manufacturers sustain continuous flow, optimize efficiency and reduce errors in manual assembly processes.

The conference in Lille was a fantastic opportunity for Hubert and Christian to talk to customers, prospects, and other industry personnel, and to demonstrate the limitless possibilities for operational improvement that location intelligence solutions can deliver.

For more information on Ubisense, visit our website at www.ubisense.net.Or to find out about the event, click here:

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Ubisense and Savi Technology to Provide Location Intelligence Systems to U.S. Government Agencies in RFID-IV Contract Win

Ubisense has been selected to provide its real-time location intelligence systems to U.S. government agencies by Savi Technology which was awarded a multi-million dollar, five-year contract by the U.S. Army Contracting Command. Savi and Ubisense will provide indoor/outdoor location intelligence systems that enhance global asset planning and logistics tracking to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), coalition partners and other U.S. government agencies.

Ubisense’s indoor location intelligence systems report the precise location of tagged items in real-time (indoor GPS), and also provide real-time alerts, process monitoring and reporting. This ability to gain complete visibility inside facilities enablesorganizations to radically optimize operations logistics, manufacturing and MRO operations, consistently resulting in higher quality, faster delivery and improved reliability.  

“We have put together a world-class team to serve the needs of the Department of Defense and other federal agencies,” said Bill Clark, president and chief executive officer at Savi.  “Combining Ubisense’s expertise in real-time location systems with Savi’s leadership status as the premier provider of military RFID systems provides the U.S. military and our allies with unmatched global asset planning and tracking capabilities.”

The demand for Ubisense’s location intelligence systems is rapidly growing globally in commercial sectors, based on results achieved by existing clients, such as Amtrak, BMW, PACCAR, Caterpillar and Cummins, to name a few. Ubisense has also worked with the U.S. Army to develop indoor training systems to better prepare soldiers for urban terrain combat, and welcomed the opportunity to expand its footprint in the federal government arena.

“This contract signals a valuable opportunity for government agencies to significantly improve a variety of asset planning and logistics-related functions, and we are grateful to be part of this Product Director Automated Movement and Identification Solutions (PD AMIS) mission,” said Richard Green, CEO, Ubisense. “We look forward to working with Savi Technology, a trusted and proven vendor within the government sector, to demonstrate the plethora of benefits federal agencies can achieve using this technology.”

"Big Challenges Off the Road" by Automotive Manufacturing Solutions

12 February 2014 | Mark Venables

The volumes may be lower and the unit size larger, but the logistical and manpower issues involved in off-highway manufacturing are similar to the automotive industry

The manufacture of huge off-road vehicles follows many of the same processes found in automotive production. Most of these models are made using flow line processes with line-side kitting and sequenced logistics; the main difference comes in the sheer size and weight of the components and subassemblies.

The Caterpillar Peterlee facility in Durham, UK, is the worldwide manufacturing location for Caterpillar Articulated Trucks and currently produces a six-model range, four with different engine variants that tip the load and two which eject it. Phil Handley, facilities managing director, explains: “We make vehicles with a capacity starting at 25 tonnes right through to a 43-tonne machine. We have machines that we sell into regulated countries from an emissions perspective – tier 4 compliant machines – and we have machines that we can sell to the rest of the world where the emissions regulations are not quite as tight.”

Product variation is quite limited. Unlike their automotive counterparts, off-road vehicle manufacturers generally do not face the constant churn of new models on an annual basis which necessitates re-tooling and significant line changes. “Our cycles are very different from automotive models and lately they tend to be emissions driven,” states Handley. “We are just going through the launch of the tier 4 compliant product along with most of our competitors,” he says, adding that elements of a base model tend to be updated before a new generation is launched.

In addition to the narrower model range, paintshop is less taxing; the majority of construction equipment is yellow, although specific colour schemes for off-highway vehicles such as military camouflage are sometimes requested.
 
Scope as well as scale
Handley refers to the manufacturing philosophy at Peterlee as “flat plate to gate”, with only the drivetrain not manufactured on site. All the drivetrains feature Caterpillar components (gearboxes, axles and engines) that are brought into the plant in sequenced line-side deliveries.

Moving off-highway vehicle components can be a challenge owing to their large size

“We receive flat sheet steel and then go through the standard processes where we cut, bend, weld, paint,” he explains. “We then have a single piece flow line where we assemble various models. It is not actually a physically moving line such as you would find in an automotive assembly plant, but we use product movers to index move the machine along the line as it grows.”
 
There is only a small amount of automation. “We use laser cutting technology and we use robots for welding,” says Handley. “We have an automotive paint plant, but that is not automated. There is more automation in the fabrication process as there are more repeatable processes that we can modular-build.”

When it comes to capacity, line speed and throughput, Handley is somewhat cagey. “We have got capacity in place that meets industry demand and we are continually investing in that capacity,” he states. “We are flexible with our working patterns; we can move people in and out of the process to match the seasonality or cyclical demand, so we can manage peaks and troughs with our process.”

Tackling the size issue
From an automotive perspective, the major difficulty with off-highway vehicles is their sheer size. “The scalability is certainly a challenge,” Handley says. “But you have to bear in mind that, compared to some of the large mining trucks that are manufactured elsewhere within the group, our product is not particularly large; you would fit our completed truck inside the body of one of those [trucks].”

Nonetheless, Handley admits that the scale of moving the parts is certainly a challenge. “But we make our own trolleys and stillages and we have huge cranes to move the components around,” he states. “The actual dump body sits on a special stand that can be raised by a fork-lift and moved to a required position.”

Along with the size and scale of the components, there are ergonomic issues to be addressed. “You need the people who are involved in the manufacturing process to be safe and to be able to move and manipulate heavy components,” explains Handley. “So that can become a challenge and we have had to develop some bespoke equipment that we use to fit various components to the machine.”

A further complication caused by the size of the vehicles, components and assemblies is the space needed for line-side logistics. When working on a flow line, modules need to be available at the right point and at the right time. According to Handley, some of the order-specific, sequencing activities where various options are matched with the product as it moves along the line mean that a large area is required. “We don’t have a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong as we are moving through the manufacturing process, as realigning products is difficult.”

The active tags used in Ubisense’s Smart Factory System transmit data several times per second

Manpower and ongoing needs
Another key challenge faced by Caterpillar and other heavy vehicle manufacturers is staffing. “Along with the process, it is the skills that are our biggest problem,” confirms Handley. This means attracting, developing and retaining the skills that are needed across the full range of positions: welders, fabricators, painters, electricians, manufacturing engineers and design engineers.

“It is quite a challenge attracting young, talented people into the industry,” states Handley. He believes the problem is particularly acute in the off-highway sector: “Maybe automotive companies don’t find it so difficult, but at this end of the market we do." He explains that heavy manufacturing is "not always viewed as an attractive career” because it is seen as a “dirty, dark and dank type environment” – but that this is far from the truth. Peterlee, for one, is a high-tech facility with a clean environment despite the heavy fabrication.

Placing progress in real time

At the AGCO factory at Marktoberdorf in Germany, a recent installation of a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) was being hampered by incorrect data entry during the assembly process. The company opted to automate this activity using the Ubisense Smart Factory System. Over the 4,000m² area, AGCO fitted 76 sensors and 200 real-time location system (RTLS) tags. By precisely tracking the tags on each gear assembly as well as on each subassembly, the company achieved real-time progress monitoring.

“Typically, manufacturers are relying on an operator manually typing in information on a workstation about the job in process,” says Terry Phebey, Ubisense vice-president of marketing. For instance, a gearbox assembly would come into the bay and at a quality control point a worker would have to type information into a terminal or scan a barcode. By instrumenting the area, AGCO was able to eliminate the human data input. The entry of the assembly into the space automatically sends intelligent data to the MES, entirely machine-to-machine.

“All that is required is that at the start of the process the tag is fitted to the part or assembly and an association is made between that part and the serial or bin number,” explains Phebey. “The Smart Factory System uses high-precision UWB real-time location technology combined with GPS for outdoor applications,” he adds. “Users only need three components: active (battery-powered) transponders or tags, designed for different applications; sensors; and software.”

The tags have a unique ID and can, for example, be associated with production data and transmit location radio signals to sensors, which detect the signals and calculate the positions of the tags several times per second. The Ubisense software stores, processes and displays the location data in real time for the user as well as generating events for IT or shop-floor systems.

Customers usually start with a small zone and just a few sensors as proof of concept, then, when they are happy with the ROI and quality metrics, the system is rolled out across the entire assembly process.

New Faces: Our Geoplan colleagues in Japan

Geoplan colleagues

Managing Director, Mr Nishizawa with Richard Green and the celebration cake

Automotive Supply Chain Magazine Article

Find & Seek

If you're looking to turn your manufacturing facility into a Smart Factory then real-time location system (RTLS) technology can help. Laura King reports. 

The world of time and location-based data is growing at a staggering pace and its place in the automotive production line is pushing that evolution. The practise of increasing efficiency, cutting seconds, and increasing productivity has always been at the core of the automotive industry and Cambridge - based Ubisense has plenty of experience in assisting OEMs. The inspiration for their latest system came from the BMW assembly line in Regensburg and has now been rolled out in various production facilities across the globe, including BMW in China and the USA, MINI in the UK, Daimler in Germany, and Smart in France. Working closely with Atlas Copco – the Swedish industrial tooling and equipment business – Ubisense has produced smart tools which do the leg-work for you.

The first installation came at the BMW Regensburg plant, which produces the 1 Series, 3 Series and Z4 sports cars on the same line. The production planning system processes the customer orders and sends the customer-specific vehicle request onto the line. To utilise tools and set torques many plants use a passive RFID system or a barcode and scanner, which can be unreliable and labour-intensive. Ubisense CEO Richard Green highlights the problems the OEM was finding saying, “the operator has to pick up a scanner, scan the barcode that’s attached to a car, put the barcode scanner down, then work on the car that he’s just scanned – but occasionally the operator might get distracted, take a mobile phone call, and then go to work on the next car on the line. Of course he’s scanned the wrong car for the settings for the tool.”

“They were getting a lot of misreads of barcode scanning and so they wanted to eliminate that activity. So, as we tag the car and the tool, we eliminate that activity for the operator. That saves time but, more importantly, it really error-proofs the whole system. The operator simply has to walk up to the car with the tool and the tool is then programmed for the car on which he’s operating.”

“It’s very common – particularly with the new generation of wireless tools that most manufacturers are introducing – that the operators want to work forward; they can fool the system by working up the line and creating themselves a time buffer. That’s a pretty dangerous activity if you’re not changing the settings on the tool for the car that you’re going to go and work on but, if you have Ubisense installed, then it’s impossible for the operators to have the wrong tool with the wrong setting on the wrong car.”

Ubisense uses advanced ultra wideband (UWB) radio to locate and track small tags. As Ubisense removes the act of scanning a barcode, and the risk of faulty scanning, it can save as much as six seconds for each tool. On a line with over 140 tools this can mean gaining 14 minutes for every vehicle. This level of accuracy in geospatial awareness – the sensors can track a tool to within twelve inches in three dimensions many times a second – and reliability of data is almost totally unique to Ubisense and goes some way to explaining their global popularity, even having small installations in Honda and Toyota plants. Their work with Atlas Copco introduces them to the plant, and they then work hard to build relationships with OEMs, to provide upgrades to software and operating systems when needed.

Adding the tracking system and database to a factory is outwardly easy according to Green. He points out that on a final assembly line “work and cable trays would probably be running along the lines anyway for the forms of equipment”. This means Ubisense can simply “run our cabling into existing infrastructure and put up our network of readers along the line”. On something like the MINI production line, which is roughly two kilometres long, there will need to be between 350 and 400 sensor readers depending on the level of precision and performance reliability needed for a particular area. The actual installation time can be achieved in a manner of days; weeks if the area is bigger or the process more complicated.

“We have some fairly sophisticated tools for simulating a plant, quite early on in the process. Given the plant’s dimensional data we can model against that and simulate what the systems will look like and how they will interact. We can use that intimate early design workshop with the customers to make sure that they understand the kind of thing we can do, the inputs we need and the outputs we can give. I think we’ve got some fairly comprehensive tools but it’s still a fairly involved process, with the manufacturing engineers and often the systems people.

“Fairly early in the engagement, we would be working with the IT groups and they’re always satisfied with safety measures. There’s always an internal checklist for IT on network, security, wireless standards, interference and all those topics. They’re incredibly careful about those things and very early on in the process we’ll go through that discussion and I don’t think we’ve ever had a problem.”

Currently Ubisense offers an Assembly Control System, ‘Asset Manager’, among others, and ‘Ubisense VIP’ – a bonus package offering web-based user configuration, support for multiple-site operation and management of multiple components and multiple tags per component – as part of their sentient computing Smart Factory System. The company has developed this suite of applications by working closely with their strategic customers, who continue to stretch Ubisense into other areas of their business, as they see having one common location and identification system as being absolutely critical. Green mentions that this will be expanded in the future saying, “we have a whole road-map of things coming along, really driven by our strategic customers. That’s everything from tool locations, tracking at the beginning and into assembly control – quite a lot of activity in off-tracks and then into the yard – so we can genuinely put together an end-to-end system for the customer with a minimal number of systems to track and identify products and assets and make them visible and control them throughout the whole manufacturing process.”

The current systems require a lot of investment, but the return is a direct productivity benefit in reducing the amount of time it would otherwise take to identify the car and the tool. The tangible ROI can be labelled at about 12 months and with multiple applications this can be shortened. There is very well-defined, detailed ROI that Ubisense can plug into the parameters – the tools and the station’s stack time, output of the cars and so on – to illustrate the benefits of a compound ROI.

“We’ve got something that is genuinely helping companies to be more productive and I think that’s a key driver in today’s market. Anything that can help improve the productivity of a manufacturing plant gets an airing and to have secured some of Europe’s leading manufacturers – and a global agreement with BMW to roll it out across all their plants – is a testimony to the return on investment that they see.

“Any benefits of this sort of system are additive or cumulative. At a high level, the general benefit is giving operational management – visibility and control. That can be simply knowing where assets are, knowing where products are, knowing where major component assemblies are, as they’re going along a line. Then, using the knowledge of that location to drive process automation, establishing the setting of a torque on a torque tool, or the setting on a rolling road for a particular VIN number. They’re both making the activity visible and then being able to control it. And then, of course, being able to collect that data means that afterwards you can analyse it and look at ways of improving the process. That’s a huge additional benefit you get as a consequence of providing that visibility and control.”

Green (pictured) has been with Ubisense since its inception in 2002 in an industrial lab in Cambridge headed by Chairman and President of the Institute of Engineers and Technology, Professor Andy Hopper CBE. During his twenty years of experience in the software industry, as a founder of Smallworld which was listed on Nasdaq in 1996 and was acquired by GE in 2000, he’s seen a lot of commercial opportunities. Ubisense continues to multiply, serving the aerospace business and expanding into industrial vehicles, from Cotton Harvester assembly at John Deere to hydraulic technology in industrial vehicles with Caterpillar and tier suppliers – notably providing a 98% reduction in manual search efforts in the repair area at the Jamestown, New York Cummins plant. The end product may vary greatly but the connections and software are easily adapted.

“The basic infrastructure is the same and also the basic software. Of course, the quantities, volumes and throughputs are quite significantly different. Although we find extremes in automotive – at one end we’ve got MINI producing a thousand cars a day and at the other end we’ve got Aston Martin producing 20 – that’s quite a significant variation. Then you go into aerospace and Airbus is producing one plane a month. It is a different scale; essentially they’re doing the same thing but it’s a more complex assembly. One of the huge benefits of getting a system like this installed is that it really helps with flexibility within the manufacturing activity. Whether it’s aerospace – and that ranges from an Airbus to a fighter jet to a helicopter – or tractors, this technology can be applied to any relatively high-value product and its manufacturing process.”

The system has the ability to show when a person or object with an assigned tag enters an area, automatically locate it, show it in the Ubisense 3D environment and pass the data through to the Ubisense API and to other systems such as After Action Review (AAR) camera tracking. The only challenge Ubisense finds in inplementing systems, says Green, is integrating with the existing systems because “the OEMs have an awful lot of home-grown systems and middleware. When we began working with BMW we had to integrate with its particular middleware. Daimler has another set and Volkswagen another. Once connected the suite quickly becomes indispensable.
“In terms of giving people visibility over the supply chain, it can be an enormous help in helping to adjust according to new circumstances.”

In short, the ability to locate and track containers, tools and vehicles on a production line in three dimensions can provide a flawless line, cuts in assembly time and practical usable data to build on in the future. A system that creates a multi-dimensional data image of a factory and can spot errors is only the latest in sentient computing. Advances in mapping technology, physical tagging and geospatial software are still possible. No point waiting for them though, the current systems are already performing miracles.
Return

 http://www.automotivesupplychain.org/features/204/62/Find-and-seek/

Black Hills Corporation selects Ubisense for Network Conflation Solution

Cambridge, UK - Ubisense Group plc (“Ubisense” or the “Company”) (AIM:UBI), a market leader in location based smart technology, announces it has been selected by Black Hills Corporation for a network asset realignment project.

Black Hills Corporation, a leading North American Energy Company has selected Ubisense and strategic partner, we-do-IT, to provide network asset realignment services for its operations in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado.

The Ubisense solution will align Black Hills Corporation’s electric and gas utility assets with up-to-date basemaps to provide their operations with accurate network data to facilitate and support planning, design, customer service, maintenance and support across a wide area of coverage. The Project entails adjusting areas of approximately 2,430,493 nodes with accurate parcel information.

Richard Green, CEO of Ubisense said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Black Hills Corporation for this important project. Our innovative network alignment solution provides the fundamental building blocks of an accurate utility network. This will provide the foundation upon which other activities, such as service restoration, can be provided with a high degree of certainty of the integrity of the network.”

Ubisense adds two new German Customers using its Google map based myWorld product

Cambridge, UK – Ubisense Group plc (“Ubisense” or the “Company”) (LSE:UBI), a market leader in location-based smart technology, announces two new sales of the Ubisense myWorld product and Google Maps for Business, to Stadtwerke Kiel and Stadt Heidelberg.

Both customers use the GE Smallworld^_TM enterprise GIS to manage their spatial assets and networks.  Stadtwerke Kiel is a multi-utility that uses GIS to plan and document their networks and manage faults.  Highlights of the solution for Stadtwerke Kiel include improvements in fault management and planning.  When faults are reported it is crucial to be able to identify their location.  Key information which Stadtwerke Kiel uses for this is the address of the customer reporting the fault or that of a nearby place of interest.  myWorld provides a simple and powerful one-box search tool for address lookup, bringing the power of Google’s search engines into the fault analysis application. When the fault location is identified users can use an integrated view of the nearby network, Google mapping data and also Street View information to understand what else is located in the surrounding area and assist in assessing the local risk associated with the faults.

System planners also benefit from the integrated view of network and web data.  When planning a new network they will immediately be able to check the elevation profile and surface type that new build will cross using the terrain data provided by Google.  This will help them to plan associated drainage and ventilation pipe design from their desk, without the need for a field survey, cutting down on time and cost.

Stadt Heidelberg uses Smallworld to manage all of the spatial data for the City of Heidelberg including land registry, land use planning, their waste water network, etc.  myWorld will enhance their operations by adding Google mapping and Google search capabilities to their Smallworld system.  

Richard Green, Ubisense Chief Executive Officer, said; “Uptake of the myWorld products has accelerated rapidly since their launch and these new contracts further demonstrate the power of these applications for our customers.

Sales of the myWorld product doubled during 2012, across a customer base ranging from electricity utilities in Europe to cable TV operators and municipal authorities in North America.

Our innovative myWorld products and solutions are based on the new generation of mobile and internet technologies, which can be used in the office or in the field, to do any number of tasks such as building new networks, restoring service or providing an integrated operational view.  We are developing focused apps for smart devices which combine integrated enterprise and web mapping with other internet and back office systems to provide greater operational visibility and support to benefit our customers.”

Daimler to use Ubisense Assembly Control System on Mercedes S-Class assembly line

The Ubisense Smart Factory System Solution for automotive assembly lines based on its six-sigma Real-Time Location System has achieved the pilot acceptance milestone in Daimler’s project to equip the assembly line for the Mercedes S-Class premium cars in Germany.

Following an extensive proof of concept at the customer’s plant in Rastatt, Ubisense was awarded the contract to equip the S-Class assembly line in the Sindelfingen plant. The project was divided into two phases: the pilot phase covered 2 line segments and the associated DC tools provided the means to integrate and test the solution; the system will now be installed at the remaining stations and all the DC tools will be integrated.

The Ubisense Smart Factory System automates the recognition of tool / vehicle interactions on the production line, eliminating the need to scan vehicle ID numbers and ensuring that the correct tool program is being used for the particular vehicle at the station. In addition, the exact location of each vehicle is tracked continuously and matched to the vehicle ID which is then supplied to external worker assistance systems as the vehicle arrives at each station. This is particularly useful on line segments where traditional vehicle sensing technologies are not available.

The result of using the Ubisense Smart Factory System will be a significant reduction in unproductive assembly time, as well as eliminating many errors that can occur in manual operations such as scanning.

The Smart Factory System is integrated with the car manufacturer’s PLUS manufacturing execution system and with the DC tools via the Atlas Copco Open Protocol. The final solution will also control other devices and the tools of several other vendors. Ubisense is implementing the solution together with Atlas Copco following the strategic partnership which the two companies launched in 2009.


Richard Green, Ubisense CEO, added: “We are delighted to be working with Daimler and Atlas Copco, both renowned for the high quality of their products and their manufacturing excellence. We look forward to supporting our customers in achieving their ambitious manufacturing goals over the years to come.”

Latest News: Ubisense lands milestone deals with American utilities

Source: Cambume (Cambridge Business Media)
April 12, 2012

Author // Lautaro Vargas

Three North American utilities are to deploy Ubisense's gas leak detection software to improve real-time surveying of over 11,500 miles of natural gas distribution and transmission pipelines.

They are the first deals of Ubisense's VeroTrack product following the integration of the InMaps acquisition made in September 2011.

"Ubisense VeroTrack automatically tracks what was surveyed where, by whom and when," said Richard Green, Ubisense CEO. "And it does so with a 15-20 per cent cost savings over current manual processes."

Ubisense has to date been more readily associate with its manufacturing and assembly tools, but Green has always stated there is a broad range of applications for its real-time location solutions.

"We are pleased with the traction Ubisense Vero Track is receiving – the feedback we have had from customers has been positive and we expect the momentum to continue across our Geospatial offering," said Green.

Ubisense says the VeroTrack software increases surveying efficiency by 20 per cent by allowing users to automatically track and mark progress, highlight problem areas, and store the data for quick retrieval, while also automatically highlighting facilities surveyed and recording gas detector readings.

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Latest News: Ubisense on course to be Cambridge’s next £1bn company!

Published in Business Weekly

Feb 24, 2012

It’s 10 years since Ubisense spun out of Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory – such fertile territory for technology greats.

The rich potential identified by the founders has every chance of ensuring the Real Time Location Systems specialist becomes Cambridge’s next £1 billion company. CEO Richard Green certainly believes the achievement is well within Ubisense’s compass.

Events in a dizzy 2011, reinforced by a stunning start to 2012, have strengthened the company’s hand. So, too, has the market intel that highlights the scale of the sectors Ubisense technology can leverage.

A recent report from Cambridge based IDTechEx forecast that the RTLS market would rise from $255 million to $293m in 2012 and then power up to nearly $4 billion in 2022. It stressed how well placed Ubisense was to exploit the opportunity. As Business Weekly recently reported, Ubisense, could increase headcount by 50 per cent in 2012 after winning a string of new orders and lining up a potential bonanza in Asia. Acquisitions could fast-track the growth process, according to Green. He says: “We went from 100 staff at the start of 2011 to 170 by the end of the year. Crystal ball stuff – we could easily be up to 250 people by the end of 2012.

“Cambridge is a great place to be with bags of talent when a technology company is in growth mode and acquisition might be a good way for us to maintain that talent pool.”

In recent months Ubisense has won a surge of new orders with Airbus, truckmaker PACCAR, BMW plus another German automotive company – and broken into Korea by landing a contract with Hyundai.

Green said that after a few false dawns for RF technology, “This time it looks like its time is ripe – the market makers certainly believe so. We had an absolutely stunning year in 2011. We thought the high spot would be the London stockmarket listing in the summer but between then and the end of the year the orders just continued to flow. New contracts are still coming in.”

Prime among these was the signing of a new global licensing agreement with Airbus. Ubisense tracking technology is now installed at 10 Airbus sites – up from three at the start of the relationship.

The relationship with BMW goes from strength to strength – the latest installation being a significant one in China, given the company’s growth ambitions in Asia.

At the end of 2011, Ubisense landed a contract with another big German automotive company. And the cup was overflowing when Ubisense clinched a new relationship with PACCAR, the multinational truckmaker headquartered in Washington State.

Ubisense then broke into Korea – courtesy a landmark Asian deal with Hyundai. An alliance with Jaguar Land Rover, which has its own ambitions for growth throughout Asia, could also prove important.

The sheer diversity of major markets in which Ubisense’s tracking technology holds a USP may prove the most accurate barometer of its future fortunes.

The company was pleased to establish a stronghold in the energy market with two important contracts. It won a landmark deal with partners S3ID for AGIP – the Italian automotive gasoline and diesel retailer subsidiary of multinational petroleum company Eni. This followed its success with partner, PA Consulting Group, in winning a contract with a large energy utility in Washington State.

Ubisense’s collaboration with Atlas Copco is meanwhile opening up some terrific business opportunities in the field of automotive.

In the past six months, Ubisense’s Tool Location System (TLS) solution has been deployed by six new Atlas Copco customers including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Audi, GM, Hyundai and Paccar. The sizes of the installations vary from single production work stations through to multi-global site installations.

The Atlas Copco-branded TLS software was jointly developed with Ubisense under a collaboration agreement signed in 2009 for the research and development of Real-Time Location Systems applications for industrial tooling.

Green said: “The fact that one in every three cars in the world is assembled with Atlas Copco tools highlights the enormous growth opportunity for the TLS, particularly as the solution is now being sold through the Atlas Copco catalogue providing increased exposure to a greater number of automotive manufacturers across multiple geographies.

“As the TLS is adopted more broadly, we are finding that manufacturers require additional applications relevant to the assembly line, further endorsing our RTLS solution in the automotive industry. It also highlights the important benefits that can be driven by collaborating with the world’s leading industrial tool manufacturer.”

The TLS is comparable to small scale GPS but instead of using satellites, customers use sensors inside their manufacturing plants to monitor the position of tools and assets in real-time and with precision accuracy to 15cm.
This allows error-proofing to be taken to the next level and allows customers to ensure that tightening is performed reliably at the correct tool setting and at the correct work station.

The solution is compelling for automotive manufacturers as it provides a range of benefits for the assembly line floor – including increased productivity, improved quality and, importantly, helps to reduce costs. The TLS is now available from Atlas Copco’s worldwide application and customer centres and installations in North America and Europe have already been achieved.

Ubisense’s financial transparency and clear focus have already made the company something of a darling with London stockmarket investors. More remarkably for any hi-tech business, while its technology has continued to evolve Ubisense hasn’t had to pivot to the contortionist levels forced on some of its Cambridge contemporaries to gain global market traction.

Strong and sustainable international growth will be the likely – and thoroughly deserved – reward.

http://www.ubisense.net/

Latest News

Ubisense Solutions Help Children Explore Swedish Technology Park

Denver, CO (PRWEB) November 02, 2011

A science center in Sweden is using a precise real-time location system (RTLS) from Ubisense (AIM: UBI) to offer children and adolescents a playful introduction to the world of science and technology.

In the visitor area at the Innovatum Technology Park Science Center in Trollhattan, children of all ages can explore the world of technology in an exciting and stimulating environment full of interactive exhibits. Visitors can play in virtual worlds on giant projection screens creating fire-spitting dragons in the setting of a computer-generated medieval castle or indulge in classic family favorites such as ‘Memory’ – turning cards over to find pairs on a screen based on movements in the real world.

Within the center’s gaming environment some of the interactive exhibits come to life thanks to a wireless location solution from Ubisense. Upon entry to the interactive area, visitors are given a large cube enabled with Ubisense’s real-time location system.

Each cube works like an oversized computer mouse. When taken into the ‘play’ area, a network of Ubisense sensors picks up the cube’s 3D location wirelessly. Every real-world motion made with the cube is immediately translated and turned into a virtual action. Based on the way they move their cubes, players can compete and test their skills moving counters, objects or cards on a giant projection screen.

Each tagged cube generates an ultra-wideband (UWB) location signal. Sensors in the gaming area pick up this information in real time and within 30 centimeters of accuracy. For accurate tracking the sensors can take up to 10 measurements per second. Information is then processed through an integrated software system.

Since the Ubisense system was installed, nearly 25,000 enthusiastic visitors of all ages have used the cubes and the center has deemed the project a great success.

Daniel Palmqvist, principal engineer at Innovatum Technology Park, is thrilled to be using Ubisense system. "Ubisense RTLS has never been deployed in this way but we were convinced that this system was just what we needed to realize this project," said Palmqvist.

Adrian Jennings, vice president of marketing at Ubisense, said: “Our location solutions are unique. No other company is deploying UWB quite the way we are. Our solutions are extremely popular in manufacturing environments where items need to be located quickly and efficiently – for example, parts and tools in the automotive industry. However, the project at the Innovatum Technology Park proves that our solutions can be fun as well as offer serious commercial benefits.”

Innovatum Technology Park spans 4,400 square meters of exhibition space, offering a wide range of activities for children of all ages. Every year up to 30,000 children visit the center with their family or on a school visit. Originally, the facilities used to be a production site for steam locomotives and turbines. Apart from its Science Center, Innovatum also offers a Business Incubator and Project Arena. For more information go to: http://www.innovatum.se

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Ubisense in the News

Collection of recent articles:

CambridgeFirst
Oct 6, 2011
BMW rolls out Ubisense tracking system

MarketWatch
Oct 5, 2011
IBS and Ubisense Revolutionise Car Manufacturing with Real-Time Location Identification System

GrowthCompany
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisense gains Realworld

Cambridge Business News
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisense buys its neighbour for 2.4m

Mandadeals
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisense gets busy on AIM

Cambridge First
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisense acquires geospatial firm for 2.4m

Cambridge Business Media (Cabume)
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisense acquires Cambridge neighbour, Realworld

Tech Market View
Oct 5, 2011
Ubisenses the Realworld

Ubisense in the News: Business Weekly

BMW rolls out Ubisense tracking system globally

05 Oct 2011
By Tony Quested

A new deal has been forged between BMW, IBS and Ubisense, extending the deployment of a real-time Location Identification System (LIS) across the global vehicle manufacturer’s production facilities.

The LIS system comprises a communication platform from IBS and identification tags and sensors from Ubisense.

IBS and its software partner Ubisense will expand the roll-out of LIS, which is already delivering significant productivity improvements at two of BMW’s eight vehicle assembly plants. The solution will now be implemented at three additional BMW assembly lines in Asia, Europe and the US.

The LIS integrated real-time location system (RTLS) solution, developed specifically for BMW, combines best-in-class ultra-wideband (UWB) radio tags and sensors with advanced quality management and traceability software, bringing the production process a step closer to Six Sigma and the vision of complete traceability.

The technology tracks individual vehicles through on-line and off-line final assembly. It determines the identity and location of each car in the assembly facility and, based on the proximity of the vehicles to both fixed and mobile equipment such as tools and scanners, programs and controls the devices.

Delivering unprecedented levels of accuracy and reliability for an RTLS-based solution, the system improves quality and enables line operatives to work more efficiently, achieving time-savings, process safeguarding, zero defects and cost reductions.

In 2008, Ubisense and IBS deployed LIS on a 1.8km long assembly line at BMW’s Regensburg plant in Germany. In 2010, LIS went live on the new X3 assembly line at BMW Spartanburg in South Carolina – home to the company’s SUV range.
The solution will now be deployed at plants in Shenyang, China; on the X5 and X6 production line in Spartanburg; and at the dedicated Mini plant in Oxford, UK.

How the technology works

Vehicle assembly is a complex process – particularly at plants where different models are manufactured on the same line. At BMW Regensburg, Series 1 and Series 3 vehicles are assembled alongside Z4 Roadsters. With each model built to exact customer specifications and travelling along the production line, more or less in the order of purchase, assembly line operatives have to identify the next vehicle at their station quickly and accurately in order to select the right component or tool setting and complete the work necessary in the seconds they have available.

Previously,operatives identified vehicles using hand-held scanners and paper barcode labels, which were attached to the bonnet of each car. They then had to take their Direct Current (DC) tool to the correct location on the vehicle and wait for the correct settings to load before starting work – a time-consuming process in a manufacturing environment where every second counts.

Working with BMW, IBS and Ubisense have automated this process within the BMW IT environment, shaving valuable seconds off assembly line operations. The RTLS tags now replace the barcodes on car bonnets and have been fixed to DC programmable tools.

As the cars move through the plant, the tags communicate their location via UWB radio to sensors located along the production line. The sensors instantly relay this data via a local area network (LAN) to LIS, which is integrated with the BMW IT environment. Running under SAP, the BMW IT environment comprises a so-called “communication machine” (KM), the Integrated Production System (IPS) and the Automotive Production System (APS).

LIS determines when the tools enter the pre-defined work zones around each moving vehicle, identifying the vehicle and generating a “positive event.” This prompts the APS to automatically load the correct vehicle-specific program to the operative’s tool so the next job can be performed.

Ubisense CEO, Richard Green, said: “Extending our agreement with BMW via IBS is a major endorsement of the Ubisense solution, demonstrating the quality improvements as well as time and cost savings it can deliver.

“Working with IBS, we are delighted to have forged a long-term partnership with BMW and look forward to working with the company to drive forward new efficiencies at its global manufacturing sites.”

http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/automotive-general-news/12830-bmw-rolls-out-ubisense-tracking-system-globally?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Latest News: Ubisense Launches FTTx Planning System in North America

Proven Product Reduces Capital Costs and Shortens Time to Revenue for Fiber Rollouts

 DENVER, Sept. 28, 2011 – Ubisense and atesio announced today the North American release of the Ubisense FTTx Planning System. The product automates the strategic planning of fiber access networks and significantly reduces the time and capital investment required for service providers to deliver fiber connectivity to homes and businesses. The solution is in regular use at Deutsche Telekom, one of the largest telecom operators in the world with approximately 40 million access lines.

The Ubisense FTTx Planning System reduces the time it takes to analyze, plan and estimate a cost-optimized, structurally sound network design and configuration from several weeks to a few hours. The solution quickly analyzes multiple planning alternatives to find the scenario that balances revenue and capital costs across dozens of variables. It uses available infrastructure data to produce an optimized network plan that includes equipment and cable material quantities and cost estimates for various deployment scenarios such as greenfield and brownfield.

“We wanted to bring our customers a solution that would get them to market faster, with the best possible network configuration,” said Scott Casey, Ubisense Vice President of Telecom Solutions. “Planning a cost optimized fiber access network with manual methods is daunting – there are simply too many factors and alternatives to process efficiently. With our solution, network operators can quickly create plans based on their existing infrastructure and business requirements.”

Ubisense partnered with atesio on the development of the FTTx Planning System. The solution uses atesio’s powerful computation engine and high-end mathematical optimization algorithms to ensure designs minimize total network deployment costs. Planners quickly get a comprehensive view of the economic efficiency of various planning options, can adjust input parameters and rerun calculations as often as needed to arrive at the optimal network design.

The Ubisense FTTx Planning System integrates with Ubisense myWorld to allow planners to perform desk survey verification of the proposed network layouts against real world conditions using Google Maps API Premier and Street View for Google Maps. The product is also fully integrated with GE’s Smallworld Core Spatial Technology.

Ubisense will demonstrate the FTTx Planning System at the FTTH Expo in Orlando, September 28-30, 2011.

For more information visit http://www.ubisense.net/en/consulting/geo-solutions/ubisense-fttx-planning-system.html


About atesio
atesio turns state-of-the-art mathematical optimization technology into industrial solutions for the telecommunications industry. Leading fixed and mobile operators take strategic decisions (3G, LTE, NGN, FTTX) on the basis of custom-made techno-economic studies by atesio. They also master network optimization and configuration tasks (2G, 3G, SDH, MPLS) by means of atesio's award-winning and powerful network optimization software. atesio was founded in 2000 as a spin-off of a world-wide leading mathematical optimization research institute. For more information, visit: www.atesio.com.



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