Hardware Gateways & Sensors
Gateway Readers
Are deployed in fixed positions to detect and locate signals from transmitting RTLS tags and devices. To accurately determine a tag’s real-time location, each anchor within its communication range will read and often timestamp the received signals, and then exchange this information with the location engine to calculate the tag’s position. In addition to being able to receive communication, certain RTLS anchors can also transmit data to other devices, enabling you to do things like wireless configuration, firmware flashing, and sending data to a tag to manipulate actuators like LEDs or even machines, allowing for more versatile applications. Our Gateways support both UWB and BLE.
Tags are wireless devices that are linked to people, assets, equipment, inventory or mobile objects to help determine their location. RTLS tags send data encoded signals at continuous intervals to RTLS readers that then forward this information to the location engine to determine its position. Tags come in different shapes and sizes, such as in form factors like asset tags, beacons, ID badges and more. Certain tags come equipped with additional embedded sensors and long-lasting internal batteries that allow for more flexible applications. Our tags support WiFi, UWB or BLE based on the requirement.
Tags
Location Engine
RTLS Modules
RTLS Transceiver Chips
Essentially the brain of an RTLS-enabled device. Inside RTLS hardware they power the wireless communication that makes real-time locating possible. The chips serve as the starting point for development of custom RTLS devices. From them, organizations can design their own tailored RTLS-enabled device, such as a location tracking tag, allowing them to develop and build RTLS hardware with complete flexibility and control to create proprietary devices that meet their exact needs, functional and compliance requirements. Trackerwave supports UWB, BLE and WiFi frequencies.
IoT Sensors
BLE
Our system can reach an accuracy of around 2 to 3 m (6 to 10 ft) for BLE and sub meter accurancy for UWB or sub meter by using unique direction finding methods based on BLE angle of arrival and Triangulation algorithm or Ultra-wideband(UWB) based on Time of Flight (ToF). As accuracy demands can vary from one area to another, TW allows you to control the level of accuracy simply by altering the number of readers according to environment (types of wall/celling height). For example, in inventory management it’s often enough to know that the assets are present or are in an approximate area, which only few gateway readers .But you may need a more accurate position in the loading dock, and that can be achieved by adding some more Gateways to that area.
Accuracy
Real Time
Real-time is a flexible concept. For a standard TW system, it means a location update rate of up to 10 Hz, and latency down to 100 m/s. That, coupled with our superior accuracy, enables many security and safety related applications.
The TW system itself doesn’t have any limitations, and the tag can be configured to transmit for example 10 Hz or even higher and the latency can be 100 m/s or less.
As the TW Ovitag is interoperable with Bluetooth® wireless technology, it can track any Bluetooth® enabled device that is transmitting a specified radio packet. For example, smartphones can be made trackable just by adding a few lines of code to the application.
TW Tag IDs can also be read by Bluetooth devices without the help of Gateways . For example, a doctor could read a patient’s ID Tag directly using a smartphone to request critical information from a cloud service.
Bluetooth Interoperability
Open Tag Design
TW allows total freedom in tag design. You can choose between multiple ready-made tags by TW or our tag partners, integrate our Tag Module into your device, or design your own tag using our firmware libraries and schematics. Basically, any Bluetooth® enabled device can be made trackable with minor software modifications.
Thanks to Bluetooth® Low Energy technology, TW Tags consume very little energy.
A TW Tag can transmit one packet per second for 3 years(CR2477). That makes roughly 93 million transmissions in total. Using the onboard sensors or geofencing areas to only activate the tag when needed, can extend the battery lifetime by several years. Often, the battery manufacturer’s specification for the maximum lifetime becomes the limiting factor.Long Battery Life
Maintenance Free
Once installed, the TW system normally requires no physical maintenance. The system is constantly monitoring itself and can send an alert if attention is needed.
The Gateways have inbuilt accelerometers, so if they are moved the system will know. If a Locator is offline, the system will know. In the case of a power failure, the system will even perform an automated recovery.
The TW system is interoperable with Bluetooth® wireless technology, so even standard mobile devices can be made trackable by the system. [However, the 2.4 GHz band range is very crowded, so operating on these radio channels is not a trivial task. The advanced proprietary algorithms used by the TW Intelligent Locating System™ are what make it a very robust and reliable solution, even in the most demanding environments.
The system is continuously in use in challenging environments, such as fully packed trade shows and stadiums and has been confirmed interference-free of other systems.
When tracking high-speed objects, the TW system can be configured to provide faster update rates, and is also immune to any interference from other Bluetooth devices or any other wireless systems such as WiFi or wireless microphones.
Interference Free
IOT Gateways
In addition to location tracking, the TW system can be used as a gateway to the Internet of Things (IoT), receiving and exposing data from a wide range of Bluetooth® and UWB sensors.
As more and more Bluetooth® radio equipped devices are connected to IoT systems, sending out information about themselves and their surroundings, they can all be made visible to the TW system. If these devices have any sensors on board – which they pretty much always do – the sensor data can also be received by the TW system and exposed through our open and configurable API.