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From outdoor navigation to indoor navigation
Ten years later, we saw another major breakthrough in bringing navigation technology indoors, known as indoor navigation or positioning, such as what you see on Google Maps in shopping malls, airports, and other large buildings. In many ways, indoor positioning is the indoor version of the satellite navigation applications we rely on for outdoor navigation, but with the added bonus of being able to locate people and objects. Similar to GPS, indoor navigation uses a positioning system composed of sensors and communication technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), ZigBee, and Thread-enabled devices) to locate objects in indoor environments.
A wireless indoor architecture with a pod in each room using communication technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Zigbee and Thread.
The road to miniaturization
Fast forward to today, and we see the emergence of precise micro-positioning systems. People and businesses want to be able to locate and find nearly anything, no matter how big or small, in real time. Let’s say you misplaced your car keys at home, or can’t find your favorite brand of coffee at the grocery store. Or maybe you’re working in a factory and need to get a specific tool from the warehouse, or you’re a field manager dealing with an emergency and need to make sure everyone has left the building. On a micro level, indoor positioning applies to all of these situations because it can locate items and guide you to them.
In order to achieve sufficient accuracy, reliability and real-time performance, the underlying technology needs to have precise positioning capabilities. UWB technology can provide very important location information in many different applications, which has far-reaching significance.
Compared with BLE technology alone, the use of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in flagship smartphones enables more accurate and reliable indoor positioning and navigation. Its positioning capabilities are extremely precise, locating products and people with centimeter-level accuracy.
Meeting micro-level needs
At a micro level, developing effective indoor positioning technology requires the following requirements. First, the location reading needs to be very accurate, accurate to the smallest area possible. The positioning technology must be secure, as location information often needs to be kept confidential. In addition, the positioning technology needs to be reliable and easily scalable, even in harsh environments, so that the location of thousands of people and assets in large venues can be determined. Other requirements include low power consumption and affordability, so that it can be embedded in anything from high-end complex devices (such as smartphones) to low-end simple devices (such as asset tags). Of course, the positioning technology must also have low enough latency to track the movement of objects in real time.
Requirements for indoor positioning at the micro level
When designing the first indoor positioning systems, engineers used existing technologies, typically Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). While these technologies are great for data communications (the reason they were invented), they were not designed for real-time location services (RTLS) and therefore cannot meet all indoor micro-positioning requirements.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other narrowband radio systems can only achieve accuracy of a few meters. Their reliability does not reach the 99.9% required to build a safe and reliable system. Due to collisions and interference, thousands of devices cannot report their location at the same time, and problems arise when used in real-time location services. Take BLE as an example. Although it is very suitable for low-power data communication, the measurement and post-processing work required to obtain a "correct" location point will cause power consumption to peak and increase latency to several seconds.
So in the mid-2000s, engineers at the IEEE began to specify a wireless technology designed for precise positioning that would meet all the requirements. This technology was named ultra-wideband (UWB), and it has the potential to change the way we accomplish a variety of daily tasks.
By using UWB-enabled sensors, tags and smart devices to identify and locate people and objects, combined with other hardware and software platforms, companies and organizations can implement a variety of real-time location services. This includes applications ranging from employee safety monitoring to asset location and process/process optimization, thereby improving efficiency and compliance, and reducing costs.
UWB: Where we are now
UWB is based on IEEE standard 802.15.4a/z, which is optimized for precise positioning and secure communications. UWB can locate people and objects to within a few centimeters, with an accuracy 100 times greater than currently used Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi technologies.
In summary, UWB is well suited for RTLS applications for the following reasons:
UWB is not susceptible to interference of all kinds, including multipath interference, making it very reliable (interference occurs when radio waves travel two or more paths from transmitter to receiver).
It has very low latency. With an update rate of up to 1000 times per second, it can read 50 times faster than satellite navigation, allowing real-time location/tracking of any object/person.
It is implemented using mainstream CMOS technology, which is not only economical but also optimized for low power consumption.
In addition to its positioning function, UWB can also achieve high-speed, energy-efficient data communication, currently up to 27 mbps, and may be higher after future standard revisions.
Its security is achieved using IEEE-defined transmission distance limitation technology, making it an extremely secure format.
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