Use case · Assets and containers
Indoor tracking solutions
To remain competitive in a fast-paced environment with rapidly evolving technologies, companies need to become more innovative, efficient and competitive while saving resources. This is why cost-effective indoor tracking solutions combined with process monitoring and automation capabilities are becoming increasingly popular – an opportunity for anyone looking to open up new market niches.
Image: Teltonika Telematics
The challenge
To put it bluntly: why do companies and organisations need an indoor tracking system at all? In large buildings such as warehouses, shopping centres and supermarkets, trade fairs, exhibition centres, airports, hospitals, complex transport hubs, concert halls and sports arenas, managers and team leaders often spend a lot of time managing and locating in real time what they are in charge of and responsible for – people, goods and equipment.
Reorganising and optimising these laborious daily processes with modern technology undoubtedly saves companies resources, effort and time and improves customer service and ROI, to name just a few benefits. In addition, specialised software gives companies a real-time overview of all recorded objects on the floor plan and lets them use search and filter functions, movement profiles, time-lapse displays of changes, convenient workflows for registering and managing objects and people, dashboards for the tracked objects and more.
Since it became publicly available in the late 1990s, satellite-based GPS technology (Global Positioning System) has revolutionised outdoor tracking. Today, billions of people worldwide own at least one smart device with such tracking functions – a smartphone, tablet or watch with integrated GPS, or a tracker. There is, however, a major technical hurdle: GPS signals inside buildings or in narrow streets are often not accurate enough to be of practical use, as they are weakened and scattered by surrounding structures – roofs and walls. What is more, the position error of some GPS chips can be larger than the indoor space itself.
So is there a way to overcome this obstacle and take advantage of tracking and positioning indoors too – in other words, to ensure accurate indoor tracking where GNSS reaches its limits?
The solution
Thanks to rapidly evolving and competing technologies, indoor tracking can be implemented in various ways, for example with Bluetooth® Low Energy 4.X, Wi-Fi, magnetic field detection, Near Field Communication (NFC), ultra-wideband (UWB) or radio-frequency identification (UHF RFID). These differ in cost efficiency, accuracy, compatibility and implementation effort. Below, we look at use cases for indoor positioning, tracking and navigation specifically with Bluetooth®-enabled GPS trackers combined with EYE Beacons, small ID radio transmitters. The reason is as follows:
Bluetooth® connectivity is cost-effective, highly energy-efficient and accurate, works independently of the mobile network, is less prone to interference and is easy to install, roll out and integrate into the existing Bluetooth® ecosystem. Beacons, whose signal strength and transmission intervals can be precisely adapted to the customer's needs, can easily be used in environments of almost any size and shape.
ID beacons continuously transmit unique signals that are read and identified by the GPS trackers. The FM devices transmit this data together with their GNSS position data to the way4net Portal for analysis. The position of all beacons (i.e. the tagged objects and/or people) is then determined based on their proximity to the nearest tracker.
ID beacons can also be attached at fixed points in the building and used as unique location identifiers. When a vehicle with an FM tracker enters a beacon's transmission range and reads its ID signal, the vehicle's position is recorded with fairly high accuracy. If a vehicle operates both outdoors and inside buildings, it is tracked outdoors via the GNSS signal and indoors via the ID beacons.
Another scenario: the FM device is permanently mounted on walls, ceilings or shelving on the premises, connected to a power supply and used as a gateway between mobile beacons and the mobile network. Although this is not a conventional use of GPS trackers, it has also proven its worth and is in demand on the market.
Teltonika GPS trackers support up to 100 beacons simultaneously. Depending on the model, each beacon runs for around 2 to 10 years on a single battery and transmits its signal over a range of up to 500 metres. With products and accessories based on Bluetooth® Low Energy 4.X, companies and organisations can track indoor items, employees, customers, mobile tools, vehicles, movement patterns of objects and people, and much more. The possibilities and benefits are considerable – let's take a look at some of the most important use cases.
Tracking goods, staff and vehicles in warehouses
This scenario enables indoor positioning in large, busy warehouses: goods (individually or on pallets, in containers or canisters), vehicles (e.g. forklifts, pallet trucks, order pickers, tow tractors) and employees are tracked in real time. This provides comprehensive analysis of operations, theft protection, accident prevention and indoor navigation. In addition, the solution can easily be extended with Bluetooth® LE sensors, such as temperature and/or humidity sensors, to ensure the right conditions, prevent damage to goods, products and the facility itself, and avert financial losses.
In this case, FM trackers are installed in industrial trucks (e.g. forklifts), while the ID beacons are permanently mounted on shelving, walls or ceilings. Their position is known and is used for indoor tracking as soon as a forklift enters a beacon's transmission range.
The key benefits are all crucial for optimising business processes: shorter search and loading times, less downtime, lower operating costs, greater efficiency, better use of space, improved occupational safety and a higher return on investment. This concept is ideal for many industrial sites and the logistics sector.
Graphic: Teltonika Telematics
Tracking staff, machinery and vehicles in mining
When Teltonika GPS trackers are used in combination with ID beacons or sensors, business owners and fleet management benefit from real-time tracking of equipment, vehicles and staff, comprehensive theft protection, analysis of movement profiles, staff deployment, workflows and operational efficiency, monitoring of individual workstations or entire sites (e.g. temperature, humidity), securing of hazardous areas, monitoring of emergencies and management of evacuations. All of this applies to open-pit mines, underground mines, remote sites and the oil and gas industry.
As in the previous scenario, the FM devices are installed in mining vehicles (dump trucks, excavators, various loaders, bulldozers, graders, etc.), while the Bluetooth® beacons are permanently attached to support frames or tunnel ceilings. Their position is known and is used for indoor tracking as soon as the tracked mining machines enter a beacon's transmission range.
The key benefits are maximum productivity and profitability, significantly improved occupational safety and discipline, optimised workflows, better utilisation of equipment, preventive maintenance of machinery and heavy vehicles, less downtime and less waste of company resources.
Graphic: Teltonika Telematics
Tracking staff, equipment and vehicles in emergency medical services
By combining FM devices and Bluetooth® ID beacons, fleet managers benefit considerably from tracking emergency vehicles and the equipment they carry. The Teltonika GPS devices installed in the vehicle record the real-time position of the ambulances and, at the same time, of all objects fitted with beacons.
This makes it possible to track crew members, high-value medical devices and equipment as well as expensive medicines and monitor their location – and, if required, their temperature too, by adding Bluetooth® LE temperature sensors.
The key benefits are optimised processes in the emergency medical services fleet and significantly greater efficiency, theft protection and clearer accountability for medical devices, medicines and related inventory, better communication and operational readiness within the team, shorter alerting and response times, timely fleet maintenance and lower operating costs.
Graphic: Teltonika Telematics
System overview
Graphic: Teltonika Telematics
Your benefits
Smooth processes and outstanding efficiency
100% traceability for everything that matters to the business – goods, valuable equipment, processes, workflows and staff activities are recorded, monitored and optimised. Maximum results with minimum effort.
First-class customer service and brand image
Real-time monitoring and guidance of visitor, customer, patient or passenger flows; location-based smartphone apps, maps and – where appropriate – audio guides improve user experience, customer loyalty and corporate image.
Higher profitability and competitiveness
Significant cost savings through fewer losses of goods and valuable equipment and through theft protection; location-based and/or promotion-based marketing campaigns increase profits and improve liquidity as well as investment and expansion opportunities.
Greater safety and fewer accidents
Greater safety for staff and visitors, prevention of workplace accidents resulting in injury or death, lower costs from work-related injuries, better coordinated evacuations and more.
Customisable solutions for every project
For maximum benefit, the signal strength and transmission intervals of Teltonika beacons can be precisely adapted to the requirements of each application – in buildings of almost any shape and size.
Cost-effective, quick and easy installation
The straightforward installation of the wireless Bluetooth® LE beacons is inexpensive, quick and rules out human error. If damaged or stolen, any Teltonika beacon can be replaced quickly.
Devices used
Devices from Teltonika – available from way4net to buy or rent, bundled with the way4net Portal.
FM tracker
Reads the signals from the ID beacons and transmits them together with its own GNSS position to the portal – installed in the vehicle or permanently mounted as a gateway.
Learn more →
EYE Beacon
Small Bluetooth® LE ID transmitter that is attached to objects, people or fixed points in the building, enabling indoor tracking.
Learn more →
Bluetooth® LE sensors
Extend the solution with temperature and/or humidity monitoring, for example in the warehouse or for medicines.
Learn more →
Note
Content and graphics based on the use case by Teltonika Telematics (original on teltonika-gps.com), translated and adapted for way4net. Device data according to manufacturer specifications. Together, we will work out which devices and functions suit your application – and you can test the solution with a 14-day trial.
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