The Golden Rule: Better Visibility = Better Process

Without Ubisense you can't see the entire picture....

Visibility is a critical component in any task that involves motion. Humans rely on their sense of sight, sound, touch and even smell in order to identify and locate objects around them, and in doing so safely and efficiently complete execute tasks involving intricate motion. The seemingly simple task of walking through a crowded shopping mall requires detailed knowledge of the position, nature and motion of all objects in that environment lest we expect a wall to move out of our way, or needlessly dodge a person whose path does not in fact cross ours.

But with Ubisense you can see exactly where everything is in real time. 

Any manufacturing process is similarly a complex task involving intricate motion: parts and sub-assemblies move from suppliers to assembly facilities; items under construction move from workstation to workstation; tools, parts and workers must assemble at the right place at the right time. The list goes on and on.

In any such environment the scope for mistakes and inefficiencies is prevalent: parts delivered to the wrong place, the incorrect tools used, bottlenecks impeding progress, items lost. In just the same way that human senses provide real-time information about the environment enabling informed judgments to be made and efficient progress to follow, location intelligent systems provide visibility into manufacturing processes and give operators the visibility and control needed to optimize efficiency and eliminate mistakes.



RFID Journal - The Multitech Approach

Vendors are integrating technologies at the hardware level, making it easier for end users to deploy location systems.

By Adrian Jennings

Link to article in RFID Journal

an. 10, 2011—Today's trend to reduce our carbon footprint has led many governments to encourage commuters to use public transportation. But waiting for a bus, particularly in bad weather, is not an appealing prospect. To boost ridership, transit companies have invested heavily in GPS-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems, so we get real-time information about bus arrival times on our smart phones and on digital bus stop displays. Great—now we know exactly how late the bus is going to be, and how many buses will arrive at once.

A key to keeping buses running on time is getting them out of the depot on schedule. Easier said than done. While computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software can dispatch vehicles, it can't ensure that the buses, typically lined up in rows inside a metallic building, can actually move. The right driver has to be sent to the correct bus at the proper time, and that bus must be free to pull out or the whole system veers off schedule.


You can't use a GPS-based AVL system to locate the right bus, because it won't work indoors, and even if it would, it couldn't pinpoint the vehicle location to the required accuracy. In most cases, no single technology can deliver the end-to-end location requirements for an entire distributed solution. GPS is the perfect technology to track buses out on their routes, but inside the depots, ultra-wideband (UWB) is the technology of choice. In other situations, Wi-Fi is the winner, and in others still, ultrasound rules.

The problem is that location systems have had a technology-centric birth, with companies growing up around particular implementations. Solution providers have a tendency to make promises well beyond the capability of the technology at hand, and a reluctance to admit or even see the limitations of their own products. This has led to end users being underserved—they're forced to buy point solutions to address individual problems or hire systems integrators to string together multiple solutions.

The situation is beginning to improve. Instead of pushing single-technology location systems, vendors are asking: "How can we best serve this customer?" The answer invariably lies in combining technologies, as a first step. The solution also must be easy to deploy, which means all the technologies need to be housed in a single device. Ubisense's active Trimode RFID tag, for example, designed to meet the vehicle location needs of the bus industry end to end, incorporates GPS to track buses outdoors and UWB to precisely locate buses indoors. The tag can also operate indoors, in "presence mode" (2.4 GHz), when it's sufficient just to know that the bus is in the depot.

Multitechnology solutions are breaking down barriers to location system adoption. In the near future, end users will not have to ask, "Why can't I just go to one vendor to solve all my location problems?"
 

Ubisense Tag combines UWB and GPS for 'best-of-both worlds' tracking named as CSR Location Summit Fast-Pitch finalist

Cambridge, 6th October, 2010.  Ubisense, the world leader in precise real-time location systems announces the Trimode Tag, the latest addition to its line of location tracking equipment for industrial users. The unique Trimode tag combines ultra-accurate ultra-wideband (UWB) location, low-cost presence sensing, and outdoor GPS tracking in a single device.

Inside buildings, the tag operates in the standard Ubisense UWB tracking mode, transmitting UWB signals to a network of base stations for unrivalled centimetre-level 3D location sensing. Within indoor areas, where low infrastructure cost is more important than tracking accuracy, the tag can operate in a 'presence' mode, using its on-board radio to simply indicate that the tag is at hand. When the tag is outdoors, it automatically switches to GPS mode, calculating its position from the satellite signals, and reporting them to the Ubisense system using its on-board radio.

"We're very excited by the possibilities afforded by the Trimode tag," said Andy Ward, Ubisense's Chief Technology Officer. "Our customers can now deploy a single tag to locate assets in real-time across their sites, both indoors and outdoors. We're providing the best of both worlds – precision tracking where it's needed indoors, and cost-effective, low-infrastructure tracking across large outdoor areas."

Powered by a high-capacity lithium battery, and housed in a rugged IP67 enclosure, the device is suitable for a wide range of mixed indoor/outdoor applications in the manufacturing, transit and military sectors.

Learning that the Trimode tag had been named as a finalist at the CSR Location Summit Fast-Pitch awards, in the “Most Innovative Connected Location Device” category, Ubisense CEO Richard Green, said: "Our major manufacturing customers like BMW, Aston Martin and Airbus rely on our precise UWB tracking to keep their production processes running smoothly, and we can now integrate large-area outdoor tracking into the same solution. I'm delighted that this innovative product is already receiving plaudits from industry experts."

Digging For France by Adrian Jennings

I just got back from Cambridge Silicon Radio’s Locations & Beyond Summit in San Francisco. This was an invitation-only event gathering over 200 global location industry experts and executives to discuss “connecting everything, everyone, everyplace in a location aware world.” I was honored to be asked to make a presentation about Ubisense’s Tri-Mode Tag as a finalist in the “most innovative device” contest.

As it happens the Tri-Mode Tag (OK: I succumb – TMT) was designed very much with the goal of connecting everything, everyone, everyplace, so being invited to the conference was either a testament to the vision of Ubisense’s engineers and perceptiveness of the conference organizers, or a stroke of good fortune sufficient to make me nervous about crossing the road for fear of the universe attempting to redress the balance. I prefer to put it down to vision and perception.

The evolution of the TMT was very much an “inside-out” process, first locating objects indoors and then venturing outdoors as user demands expanded. The first mode of the tag uses UWB for very precise location. This mode was and still is predominantly used indoors where the installation of fixed infrastructure is possible, but it’s also increasingly used to cover areas around the outside of buildings too. The second mode added was a 2.4 GHz “proximity” mode, giving approximate location with sparse infrastructure. We see this deployed in large indoor structures, but it also has reach much further from buildings when deployed outdoors. The third mode in the TMT adds a GPS module to set the tag free of any terrestrial infrastructure altogether for location anywhere.

The story I heard at the summit sounded like the same thing played backward: an “outside-in” discussion of the need to expand on GPS ubiquity by taking location services indoors. I think just about every speaker made the following observations in one shape or form: GPS has been so successful that location services have become an expectation rather than a desire; people increasingly want to extend these capabilities indoors (most smart phone use is indoors these days for example); and different applications require different levels of location accuracy. Stated another way, there is a strong need for multi-technology devices that provide various levels of accuracy both outside and in.

It’s all a bit like digging the Channel Tunnel really. Here in the RTLS industry we started out on the UK side, locating devices indoors with ever increasing precision. When users asked us to track those same assets outdoors we started digging for France. In the GNSS industry, GPS started out on the French side, locating devices globally, and when users started to want the same services indoors, the industry started digging for England. The real tunnel met in the middle through a sophisticated laser alignment system; the location services tunnel is being connected by devices like the TMT.

To coin a resuscitated phrase: I love it when a plan comes together!