Tracking tags & beacons
Do you want to integrate tracking tags & beacons into your IoT solutions?
Which tracking tags or beacons to choose?
The choice of one technology over another will be determined by various factors such as the need for location accuracy, the reactivity of the position display or the IT infrastructure required, which will influence the acquisition cost of the overall solution.
Bluetooth Low Energy beacons
Blue LITE ID
Small equipment & people identification
Replaceable battery – 5 years battery life
Indoor and outdoor use
NEW
Blue LITE TOUCH
Driver and passenger identification
Push-button for status change – Replaceable battery
Indoor and outdoor use
Blue COIN ID
Small equipment identification
Ø 36mm – 5 years battery life
Indoor and outdoor use
Blue PUCK ID
Large equipment identification
IP68 -IP69K – 20 years battery life
Indoor and outdoor use
Wirepas Mesh tracking tags
Blue SLIM ID+ Mesh
Small equipment identification
2,4mm thick – 2.8 years battery life
Indoor use
Blue LITE ID+ Mesh
Small equipment & people identification
Replaceable battery – 6.5 years battery life
Indoor use
Quuppa AOA tracking tags
Criteria | Bluetooth Low Energy | Wirepas Mesh | Quuppa AOA |
|---|---|---|---|
Accuracy | 5 to 10m | < 5 to 10m | <1 m |
Responsiveness | from seconds to minutes | from seconds to minutes | < 1 sec. |
Acquisition costs | Low | Medium | High |
The geolocation of assets and people represents more than 70% of the digitalization projects of industrial companies. Thanks to our location beacons, it is possible to geolocate all types of indoors equipment. Whether it is tools, construction equipment (jackhammer, excavator, etc.), medical equipment (stretchers, defibrillators, syringe pumps), but also logistical equipment.
Recognized for their robustness and their very high autonomy, our tracking beacons are perfectly adapted to severe environments. We have developed a wide range of industrial beacons based on different localization technologies (BLE, Wirepas Mesh, Quuppa AOA or RFID Active) allowing to adapt perfectly to the needs and constraints of each industry.
What is a tracking tag?
A tracking tag is a standalone beacon that works with different wireless communication technologies, such as Active RFID, Wirepas Mesh or QUUPPA AOA (Angle of Arrival) technology.
This beacon is a small radio transmitter powered by a battery, which will transmit signals at regular intervals, defined as radio waves. Each beacon emits a unique identification number (NIU) allowing it to be differentiated from other tags in the vicinity.
A tracking tags is composed of a box of a few centimeters in diameter containing a battery and an electronic board on which we find among others a microcontroller, a radio module, an antenna and various sensors (example: an accelerometer or a buzzer).
What are tracking tags used for?
Indoor positioning system solution rely on infrastructure by integrating connected object such as tracker tags. Indeed, those wireless communication object makes it possible to associate a identifying number (the beacon’s) to a mobile equipment or a person.
Thanks to different indoor positioning algorithms, it will be possible to pinpoint the position of a beacon. Therefore the person or equipment with which it is associated will also be located, in real time, on a map or plan (such as Google Maps). Moreover, a tracker beacon will allow to get many data enabling companies to improve the safety of people and equipments, to reduce their maintenance and production costs, or to optimize their supply flows.
What is indoor positioning system?
When we talk about geolocation, we often think of satelite positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System). But this location technology is mainly dedicated to outdoor use, because the signals emitted by the satellites are difficult to pass through obstacles. Although some GPS components can receive a signal inside buildings, it is so weak that it is too inaccurate to be reliable or usable. Also, the reference system is very important in the selection of systems. In outdoor environments, the data is represented in 2D, latitude and longitude, which cannot be used in indoor spaces.
With the digitalization of processes, real-time tracking of indoor assets has become real performance lever for companies. To meet this need for traceability, indoor tracking solutions have been developed.
Why use an indoor positioning system?
Indoor positioning system represents a real challenge for many sectors of activity. The use cases are numerous and are constantly developing in various fields such as health, construction and industry 4.0. Indoor real time locating system responds in particular to the challenges of security of people and goods and to the needs of cost optimization related to equipment purchases, production delays or delivery of building sites. Indoor positioning is becoming a real lever for increasing the overall performance of companies.
Which indoor positioning system to choose?
There are several indoor tracking systems that meet different needs. To understand which indoor localization system to choose, you need to look at different variables such as the required localization accuracy, the coverage, the infrastructure costs, the number of objects or people to be localized, or the position refresh time.
Find out more about 3 indoor localization technologies used at ELA Innovation below.
The Bluetooth Low Energy protocol is an open wireless communication technology embedded in all smartphones, which facilitates the deployment of IoT solutions integrating BLE beacons.
BLE location beacons will transmit at regular regular intervals. Once they are close to a Gateway (smartphone, PC, access point, etc.) they will be scanned by it. This will then allow to detect their presence in an area and thus to know their position.
The data is collected by the nearest gateway and transmitted to the client server. The data is then visualized on a business application in the form of a plan or a dashboards.
This technology offers a precise location of about 5 to 10m depending on the environment in which the IoT infrastructure is deployed.
Wirepas Mesh technology is a software block based on the calculation of position according to the received signal strength intensity (RSSI). This indoor positioning algorithm is based on a very simple infrastructure composed of a mesh network of fixed and mobile wireless tags, as well as a gateway allowing to centralize the data on the client servers.
Mobile tags are mounted on equipment or carried by the people to be tracked. Fixed tags, also called anchors, are fixed at regular intervals on the walls of the building and provide reference points for position calculation. The tags will communicate with each other by bouncing and send back the raw data to the gateways. This information is then processed and transformed into GPS coordinates by the Wirepas Positioning Engine to facilitate the understanding of the latter.
This technology offers a location accuracy of up to 5 meters, which is sufficient in many use cases. Indeed, once in the 5 meters zone, the asset or the person to be located is within sight and therefore easily recognizable.
The simplicity of installation of this type of solution, which does not require any wiring, ensures a very competitive installation cost and enables to adapt very quickly the size of the network by adding new tracking tags.
The Quuppa AOA (Angle Of Arrival) positioning technology is part of the RTLS (Real Time Locating System) solutions based on the calculation of the angle formed between a location tag and an antenna in a 3D reference frame. To operate, this technology relies on an infrastructure composed of tracking tags fixed on the equipment to be tracked and 360° antennas fixed in height to cover a maximum surface. Once the data is collected by the antennas, it is processed and analyzed by a Positioning Engine software that transforms it into intelligible data that can be visualized on a map and in the form of dashboards.
This calculation method allows to reach a localization accuracy of less than 1m with a latency of less than 1 second, which is particularly adapted for the tracking of small equipment such as tools.
Other indoor localization technologies, such as Ultra Wide Band, also have interesting technical features that ensure very good localization accuracy, but can quickly add up in terms of installation costs.
How to install the ELA Innovation Real-time locating system tags?
Thanks to the range of accessories developed by ELA Innovation, the installation and use of the beacons is ultra simple and fast. The different fixing systems are secured for industrial use without any risk of the beacon being detached.
For PUCK and COIN format products, there are multi-fixation holders called PUCK Holder Sticker and COIN Holder Sticker respectively.
These accessories consist of a beacon holder, a high performance double-sided adhesive, a locker and a TORX security screw. The locker and the screw allow to secure the beacon in its holder. This is particularly suitable for use that may generate shocks or vibrations.
With their multi-fixation system, the PUCK and COIN can be installed in 3 different ways on many materials (concrete, wood, plastic, metal, etc.):
- Glued with double-sided adhesive
- Screwed with 2 screws
- Attached with a nylon clamp
The LITE and SLIM cases can be glued to smooth surfaces with their industrial double-sided adhesive for indoor use. They can also be attached in key ring format.
The AERO format box can be fixed in 3 different ways:
- Glued with double-sided adhesive
- Screwed with 2 screws
- Attached with a nylon clamp
Resources
SDK & code samples
Discover 1 software development kit (SDK) including microservices, APIs, code examples using these APIs and the associated documentation. But also available are examples of code compatible with different development environments.
Bluetooth Advanced Features
Thanks to the Bluetooth Advanced Features option, you will accelerate the deployment of your business solution and guarantee your customers’ satisfaction. This service allows you to customize 100% the frame of your ELA Innovation beacons & sensors. The configuration is done by our factory teams.
IoT Blog
Discover our IoT Blog dedicated to technological innovations. Here you can expand your knowledge of wireless communication technologies and discover the many worlds in which our products are used.
