Asset Tracking Software Insights

We previously wrote about Using Beacons, iBeacons for Asset Tracking and Bluetooth vs UWB vs RFID for RTLS. This post considers the strengths of Bluetooth for asset tracking and provides some insights if you looking for asset tracking software.

The traditional way of tracking assets using barcodes, NFC or RFID requires that someone of something scan the items at very close range. Bluetooth has the advantage that it works up to 70m, sometimes up to 300m allowing the reading to be done:

  • Without moving the items, saving infrastructure such as conveyor belts
  • Without human involvement, saving time
  • Continuously

The affect of ‘continuously’ is subtle but powerful. With traditional scanning, information as to the whereabouts of an item is only as good as the last scan that could be minutes, hours or even days ago. If the item moves without scanning, finding it can be very difficult. Bluetooth asset tracking is updated continuously.

Although beacons cost more than barcodes, NFC and RFID, the readers, usually gateways, cost considerably (x10) less. As the beacons are Bluetooth, for some scenarios the readers are ‘free’ as you can use smartphones already in use. Nevertheless, beacons cost ($5 to $40) more than barcodes so tend to be used on aggregated items such as pallets and sub-assemblies or on single valuable items.

Beacons go beyond simple simple assets tracking into the Internet of Things (IoT). The same beacons can monitor quantities such as vibration, temperature, humidity, light, proximity, smoke and gas. Using beacons for extra purposes such as sensing and providing triggered information about assets can often be the most compelling aspect of using beacons.

When it comes to software, think carefully. Most people expect functionality similar to traditional barcode-based asset tracking with software on a server somewhere. While the equivalent exists in the form of RTLS systems that put beacons onto maps and plans, it’s sometimes possible to implement a simpler solution to get the job done. Could your requirements be met with just an app? One such example is the work we did for Malvern instruments that’s a simple app that does a stock check by scanning for beacons as the user moves about their site. Also, we have found that many organisations don’t actually need a full asset management solution but instead need something that can capture beacon data and make it available to their existing systems. Our BeaconServer™ fulfils that role.

Read about Asset Tracking for Manufacturers

Using Beacons in Healthcare

Russ Sharer, Vice-President of Global Marketing for Fulham, a manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting sub-systems has written an article in Health Estate Journal (pdf) on the use of iBeacons in healthcare.

Russ says it’s often difficult to find life saving equipment in hospitals and many organisations have to compensate by purchasing more equipment than they need. However, in use, equipment still gets misplaced, usually just at the critical time it is needed. He explains how the use of Bluetooth beacons and mesh can solve this problem. The article provides a great introduction to iBeacons and some issues such as the affect of frequency of transmission on battery life.

While the article mentions Bluetooth Mesh and iBeacons, these specific technologies don’t always have to be used. Gateways can be used instead of mesh to allow greater throughput of data. Also, any beacons, not just iBeacons, can be used as it’s usually the MAC address of the beacon that’s used for identification purposes. Using sensor beacons allows further scenarios, for example, monitoring the temperature of expensive medicines.

There are also many more scenarios for the use of beacons in healthcare than are mentioned in the article. Our beacons are being using to track hundreds of dementia patients. We have also been involved in a project to use beacons for navigation in large hospitals. Once there’s a network of beacons in a hospital, it’s possible to add lots of widely varying solutions.

Read About Beacons in Life Sciences

Bluetooth vs UWB vs RFID for RTLS

In the past, before Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) was introduced in 2010, real time locating systems (RTLS) used costly Ultra Wide Band (UWB) devices or radio frequency id (RFID).

Bluetooth LE is increasing being used for RTLS due to:

  • the availability of much lower cost Bluetooth devices, up to 1/4 the price of UWB.
  • a much longer battery life than UWB, 5+ years for some devices.
  • a much longer range than RFID, up to 300m vs cm.
  • the ease of detecting beacons via apps and single board computers using existing operating system Bluetooth APIs
  • the availability of low cost Bluetooth gateways
  • being based on standard Bluetooth rather than proprietary UWB protocols, custom devices and specialist skills

Read more about Beacons and Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS)

Minew IoT G1 Bluetooth Gateway Testing

If you want to quickly demonstrate or test IoT, the G1 gateway comes pre-setup to send data to beaconyun.com, Minew’s platform for testing.

The following video gives and overview of the platform and how it’s used:

The video mentions entering a beacon’s MAC address. Our article on Testing if a Beacon is Working explains how to find a MAC address.

More information:

Beacon Proximity and Sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Learn about the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), Industry 4.0

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), also known as Industry 4.0, is the use of technology to improve operational efficiency, increase throughput, minimise downtime, improve quality and lower costs. We have an article that explains how beacons are part of 4IR.

There’s a lot more to 4IR than tracking items and analysing data. It also includes areas such as automation, robotics, cyber security and 3D printing. There’s a free online Industry 4.0 Magazine that can help you get up to speed.

It’s also possible to view recent back issues.

Read about Asset Tracking for Manufacturers

Inside a Beacon – Part 3 – Programming the SoC

Part 1 Part2

This is part 3 of a 3 part series that explains what’s inside a beacon. In this part we take a look at the System on a Chip (SoC) software and programming for the Nordic nRF range found in the majority of beacons.

Despite the small size and memory, a typical beacon contains lots of code written in the c programming language. The code required to implement Bluetooth, called the Bluetooth stack, is very complex. It also has to pass tests by the Bluetooth SIG, called qualification. To prevent every product vendor using the SoC having to write the Bluetooth part themselves, Nordic supply what’s called a SoftDevice. A SoftDevice is a precompiled and linked binary library implementing a wireless protocol, Bluetooth in our case.

For the nRF52, the S132 SoftDevice provides a qualified Bluetooth® 5 low energy (BLE) Central and Peripheral protocol stack solution. It provides eight connections with an Observer and a Broadcaster role all running concurrently. Use of a softdevice allows developers to concentrate on their own high level product functionality rather than lower level complexities.

Beacon manufacturers or 3rd party developers such as ourselves create a program using either SEGGER Embedded Studio (SES), MDK-ARM Keil µVision, GNU/GCC or IAR Workbench. Most development now uses SEGGER Embedded Studio because Nordic have licensed it to allow Nordic developers to use free of charge. Most Nordic code examples in the nRF52 SDK now include a SEGGER Embedded Studio project file.

There are two ways of programming, either pre-programming the SoC with production code before mounting using socket programming or programming the SoC after mounting in the circuit. The PCB holes mentioned in part 1 are used to program the beacon in the circuit. A jig with pogo pins (pins with springs) can be used to help programming larger number of devices:

Jig in use at BeaconZone

The other end plugs into a nRF52 DK that has a debug out header at the top right:

If you keep the pins connected to your beacon, you can run and debug the code, in situ, via the SEGGER IDE. However, debugging is not that capable because it’s not possible to continue from breakpoints. You have to re-run or rely on lots of logging to the console.

The nRF52 DK also contains a nRF52 which means it can be used in the initial stages of product development prior to moving to actual hardware.

Inside a Beacon – Part 2 – The System on a Chip (SoC)

This is part 2 of a 3 part series that explains what’s inside a beacon. In this part we take a look at the System on a Chip (SoC), in particular the Nordic nRF range, found in many beacons.

In part 1 we identified the Nordic nRF52832 SoC. The nRF52 is a newer version of the Nordic nRF51 that has been used in millions of beacons. The new version has more memory, uses less power and includes NFC. The extra memory is useful for applications such as Bluetooth Mesh.

nRF52832

The Nordic nRF52832 SoC wasn’t created just for beacons. It’s a general purpose device for any electronics that needs to have 2.4GHz wireless communications and software processing. The nRF51 and nRF52 series can be found in many fitness trackers and wearables. For example, the BBC micro:bit, the Polar GPS multisport watch and Garmin’s child activity monitor.

The SoC is a stand alone computer having an ARM® Cortex™-M4 CPU with a floating point unit. The NFC-A Tag can be used in pairing and payment solutions which makes it suited for use with smartphone apps. The SoC also has digital peripherals and interfaces such as PDM and I2S for digital microphones and audio.

nRF52832 Block Diagram

It has very low power consumption via an on-chip adaptive power management system. It uses between 0.3 μA and 1.9 μA, depending on the mode, and can still respond to events. For beacons, it periodically wakes up for about 1ms, during which it uses about 5.3 mA (at 0 dBm power output).

Power use during iBeacon advertising

The SoC supports ANT™, IEEE 802.15.4, Thread, and proprietary protocols operating in the 2.4 GHz bandwidth as well as Bluetooth®.

The marking on the chip denotes the variant with different RAM and flash combinations:

nRF52832-QFAA 64 kB 512 kB
nRF52832-QFAB 32 kB 256 kB
nRF52832-CIAA 64 kB 512 kB

The image in part 1 shows the i7 beacon has the QFAA variant with 64 kB RAM 512 kB Flash. As with SSDs, the flash can only be erased and written so many times. For the nRF52832 this is 10,000 erase/write cycles. This is irrelevant for most beacons as they save very little data, irregularly, usually only when settings are changed. However, for applications such as mesh, the number of erase/write cycles needs to be minimised to prevent the device wearing out in a short period of time.

Part 3

Bluetooth Sensor Beacons For Prognostics

If you are considering using Bluetooth sensor beacons for prognostics, you should take a look at the free IEEE paper IoT-Based Prognostics and Systems Health Management for Industrial Applications (pdf).

Prognostics is the determination of health of assets to diagnose anomalous behaviour and predict the remaining useful life. It’s used to:

  • Prevent catastrophic failures
  • Increase asset availability through less downtime and less time wasted through ‘no fault found’ tests
  • Extend maintenance cycles
  • Execute timely repair

The overall aim is to lower lifecycle costs via fewer inspections, repairs and manual inspections. It can be applied to all types of assets across all sectors but is particularly applicable to manufacturing, industry and infrastructure. Infrastructure includes roads and ports as well as utility industries such as water, power and gas.

Prognostics and in-situ testing isn’t new. However, what is new is substantially improved viability and economics. New sensors, such as beacons, are easier to use, can be attached to legacy equipment and have much lower costs. The cost of connectivity and cloud storage is also decreasing. This means more assets can be retro-actively connected and the sharing of data across assets and platforms enables a more complete operating picture. This opens up new business opportunities.

The paper explains the four main types of prognostic management strategies: corrective, fixed-interval preventative, failure-finding, and condition-based maintenance (CBM). It also explains a new fusion approach to prognostics:

The paper gives examples of use of prognostics in the manufacturing, heavy industry, energy generation, transport & logistics, infrastructure assets, automobile, medical, warranty and robotic industries.

It ends with the mention that, in the future, current research and work on energy harvesting will benefit sensors used for prognostics.

More information:

Sensor Beacons
Beacon Proximity and Sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT)
Beacons in Industry and the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR)
Using Bluetooth Wireless Sensors

Latest Nordic WirelessQ Magazine Available

Beacons are small computers with a complete System on a Chip (SoC). There are four main companies that manufacturer SoCs: TI, Dialog, NXP and Nordic. Nordic is the most popular SoC for use in beacons, mainly because of the lower (tool) license cost and ease for beacon manufacturers developing the software (actually called firmware) that runs in the beacons.

Nordic has a new free Wireless Quarter Magazine that showcases uses of Nordic SoCs in many types of device, not just beacons.

Learn about:

  • Gartner research showing sensor innovation fosters IoT growth
  • Beacons help U.S. shoppers find way
  • Bluetooth LE in Amazon FreeRTOS
  • Bluetooth LE smart textiles on the rise
  • Article combining Bluetooth Low Energy and LPWANs
  • Firmwave’s use of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons to build an inexpensive satellite broadcast system
  • Article on Getting started with Bluetooth mesh

Read more