Over the past two months we have been working with a variety of organizations to architect a Bluetooth to Wi-Fi to 4G cloud based solution. The goal of this design was to obtain location based information to enable improvements in workflow and productivity.
Integra Systems has been around the RTLS space for around nineteen years. We have been exposed to all kinds of technologies to include ultra-wideband, ultrasound, IR, and Zigbee. However, we feel that since Bluetooth Low Power when introduced in 2010 and that this was introduced in virtually every smart phone; that this will be the RTLS solution of the future. Bluetooth location services have been growing by leaps and bounds over the past few years. According to ABI research, it is predicting over 400 million Bluetooth location services devices are forecasted to ship by 2022.
Bluetooth location services are two types, proximity solutions and positioning systems. Proximity solutions in essence use your smart phone to assess of another Bluetooth device within range and how far away. Small transmitters referred to as beacons are deployed within a facility and your smart phone would be presented with information from the beacons as you come within proximity. Bluetooth RTLS solutions can be used for asset tracking and well as people tracking. Bluetooth receivers are generally deployed in fixed locations within a given environment. The receivers then connect back to a centralized receiver; or location engine. BTLE tags are then programmed to transmit on a periodic basis which is determined how you desire to track the asset. This location information is used along with the RSSI to estimate the position based on a process called trilateration. The accuracy of location is dependent on several factors, but generally you can provide meter level accuracy.
In version 5.1 of the Bluetooth Core Specification added optional direction finding.
https://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/learning-center/bluetooth/bluetooth-direction-finding?cid=pad-gos-ble-020619&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg9-KrpPu4AIVzICfCh1xFg0cEAAYASAAEgK08fD_BwE
Now you can actually find the direction of the transmitted signal from another Bluetooth device. This direction finding feature supports two ways for the actual determination of the BTLE signal of which uses an antenna array: angle of arrival (AoA) and angle of departure (AoD). Adding this direction finding feature adds not only directional capabilities, while also improving location accuracy.
