BLE Indoor positioning for industrial applications

Indoor positioning solutions

Indoor positioning solutions take asset tracking beyond the reach of GPS signals.

Indoor positioning solutions use a range of technologies to locate people, assets, and other objects indoors, essentially acting as an “indoor GPS.” But while satellite-based positioning solutions cover the entire planet with a single (admittedly expensive) deployment, indoor positioning systems depend on hardware, typically fixed anchor points, in each covered location.

Existing indoor positioning solutions use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth , ultra-wide band (UWB), acoustic signals, and RFID to locate mobile tags, with varying accuracy, cost, power demand, and ease of deployment. With so many options and no clear front-runner, deciding which technology to invest in for a specific application has been challenging.

But there is good news. Here we look at one of the first indoor positioning technologies to tick all of the boxes:

Sub-meter accuracy
Ultra-low power consumption
Cost effective
Relatively quick and simple deployment

Bluetooth indoor positioning

Bluetooth indoor positioning is among the most promising technologies for scaling up indoor tracking in a wide range of use cases including logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and in warehouses and smart buildings.

Enabled using Bluetooth direction finding, the main feature of Bluetooth 5.1, the technology uses the angle of arrival (AoA) of the Bluetooth signal trasmitted by a mobile tag at several fixed anchor points to trilaterate its indoor location in real-time with meter-level accuracy.

Key use cases for indoor positioning solutions

Tracking equipment in hospitals

Bluetooth indoor positioning makes it possible to track the location of doctors and nurses as well as medical equipment in hectic hospital environments, saving precious time and money.

Access control

By identifying users and their vehicles and determining which side of a door they are located on, Bluetooth direction finding enables access control systems, for example, in offices buildings, factories, and warehouses.

Asset tracking in factories

Bluetooth indoor positioning brings sub-meter-level tracking accuracy to factory environments, ensuring that goods and tools are accounted for at all times.

Consumer devices

Consumer devices such as air purifiers or fans benefit from Bluetooth direction finding by ensuring that their users constantly remain in their focus.