Real-time positioning system for assets and personnel
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I. Introduction
In today’s world, almost every asset management institution is facing increasing market pressure. How to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of asset management? Industries such as the following are facing such problems:
1. Manufacturing: Many production facilities, especially large-scale industrial environments, the key lies in the smooth operation of production lines. Tools and other equipment are scattered and often difficult to find. The selection of the correct equipment or the manufacturing process of tools is crucial to the smooth progress of production Particularly critical is how to enable employees to quickly find out what they need to continuously operate tooling equipment and production processes, thereby reducing costs and increasing start-up time.
2. Warehousing/transportation: logistics often needs to manage a variety of operating equipment, trailers, containers, etc. Positioning and tracking these assets will help make asset use more efficient. Knowing your location accurately will help reduce bottlenecks and speed up logistics process optimization Asset allocation to maximize efficiency.
3. Medical equipment and special patient management: Positioning enables the asset management department to quickly find medical equipment in the hospital and improve service efficiency, allowing managers to reduce the time to find medical equipment, and provide fast services for preventive maintenance. It can also provide special services Patients, such as mental patients, are positioned so that they can be quickly found in any corner of the hospital.
4. Information management: Tracking valuable large-scale facilities and equipment spanning hundreds of other assets (ie, servers, laptops, PCs, palmtops) is a difficult task. Computers and information technology equipment often contain sensitive and Valuable information, but these assets are rarely properly protected, misplaced, lost or stolen. This leads to the loss of company information or falls into the hands of criminals.
Visionary managers strive for better ways to increase their asset productivity and proactively maintain their maximum asset management life cycle utility. More and more assets flow, share and distribute, so clarifying the location of these assets is the key to effective management. Provide relevant and useful information in a timely manner, and provide business processes to those responsible for managing system assets. Knowing the exact location of an asset can bring significant benefits:
1. According to real-time business data information, can make rapid processing;
2. It can reduce the time to find tools and improve the efficiency of the use of tools;
3. Improve the utilization of assets and the work flow of employees;
4. Improve productivity;
5. Reduce equipment maintenance costs
How to quickly locate these assets has become the key to management. The following introduces our company’s real-time location information system (RLTS)
2. Introduction of real-time positioning information system:
The real-time positioning system is an advanced, adaptable and economical solution most used to track assets and personnel through a standard Wi-Fi network. It is a standards-based open solution that can provide significant value for all industrial sectors that use Wi-Fi for data and voice communications.
The so-called Wi-Fi is actually another name for IEEE802.11. It is a wireless transmission standard issued by an organization called the “Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance” (WECA). The Chinese translation is “Wireless Compatibility Alliance.” Certification”. It is a short-range wireless transmission technology that can support radio signals for Internet access within a range of hundreds of feet. With the development of technology and the emergence of standards such as IEEE802.11a and IEEE802.11g, the IEEE802.11 standard has now been collectively referred to as Wi-Fi. From the application level, to use Wi-Fi, users need to have Wi-Fi compatible client devices.
In the past few years, the application of Wi-Fi in the real-time location system (RTLS) market has developed rapidly. The real-time location system (RTLS) can locate and track property, vehicles, and personnel in a limited area, such as inside enterprises, campuses, ports, warehouses, and hospitals.
3. System advantages
1. The entire system based on the Wi-Fi standard solution adopts hardware based on standards such as 802.11a/b/g, so it can make best use of the existing foundation, network economies of scale, and the ever-popular end user equipment. Because there is no need to add any hardware, companies can quickly install this system, which significantly reduces initial costs and long-term support costs.
2. In addition to saving hardware costs, Wi-Fi-based positioning systems also reduce the possibility of radio frequency (RF) interference. Since the entire Wi-Fi positioning system shares the network with other customers, it effectively reduces the need to install a separate wireless network.
Four, equipment composition
The American LAUDIS LOCATOR system includes active electronic tags, wireless LAN AP and software platform.
LAUDIS LOCATOR electronic label:
1. Read the maximum distance of several hundred meters;
2. The battery life is up to 4 years, and the battery can be replaced to ensure the long life of the label;
3. Communicate with standard WI-FI network access point
4. Connect with sensor with interface
LAUDIS LOCATOR software platform:
1. Graphical operation interface, easy to operate and query
2. The area map shows the distribution of assets or the movement of people
3. Real-time alarm and detection
4. Interface with existing enterprise software
Wireless LAN AP:
Equipment vendors include: Cisco, DLink, Netgear, Huawei, etc.Our company and Cisco are partners
Five, implementation plan
Wi-Fi asset electronic tags are attached to tools and equipment, and wireless local area networks are arranged in the factory. When the electronic tags communicate with more than three WI-FI network access points, the location of the tools and production equipment with electronic tags can be calculated and It is displayed on the back-end management software.
6. Application direction and prospects:
WiFi real-time positioning (REAL TIME LOCATION SYSTEM, or RTLS)
In the past few years, the application of Wi-Fi in the real-time location system (RTLS) market has developed rapidly. The real-time location system (RTLS) can locate and track property, vehicles, and personnel in a limited area, such as inside enterprises, campuses, ports, warehouses, and hospitals. In-Stat predicts that by the end of 2010, the location-based service market in the United States will be twice as large as it is now, and the number of devices signed for location-based services will reach 1.1 million. The global real-time positioning system (RTLS) market will reach 1.6 billion US dollars in 2010.
So far, the application of Wi-Fi real-time location system (RTLS) in the medical and health industry has developed the most rapidly. Wi-Fi RTLS vendors have been committed to promoting applications in this industry. In most hospital applications, the return on investment of Wi-Fi location tracking is very good. Cisco has cooperated with many Wi-Fi RTLS providers to use location tracking as another application that can be supported by Wi-Fi infrastructure devices like digital and voice services.
Analysis of RTLS application situation:
Case 1: Real-time tracking of patients, medical staff, and medical assets in the health care field. For example, the British hospital uses the RTLS real-time positioning system to locate and track high-value medical equipment and health care equipment, reducing the occurrence of incidents such as theft of medical equipment and equipment.
Case 2: Toyota Motor established the RTLS system in the automotive logistics supply chain. This system reduces labor costs, automates the work process, and the system tells employees where to pick up the car. The system also reduces the error rate. If a car is missed during the processing, there will be an alarm prompt, and it shortens the time the car is in the processing equipment, and improves the satisfaction of dealers and customers. The RTLS system adopted by Ford Motor Company can provide stable asset tracking and automatic real-time connection between information systems, avoiding a large number of manual operations such as delayed data input, barcode scanning, and possible inaccurate data caused by this. More effective use of real-time positioning system data to update enterprise software systems.
Case 3: The prisoner tracking system was tried on the spot in a European prison. The system can identify and track the location of prison officials and prisoners in real time, whether they are inside or outside the prison, with the purpose of preventing prisoners’ misconduct. The system requires all prison personnel to wear cards with built-in RFID tags, and the card information is stored in the prison’s monitoring device to manage the prisoners separately. For example, some prisoners need to be detained in high-level detention rooms, and some can be detained in a mixed indoor or outdoor environment. The accuracy of positioning is reflected by the detention room number.
Case 4: The U.S. Army’s real-time positioning system for material transportation combines mobile communication systems, network management and fleet management software to fully integrate WAN and local area networks for asset management, so as to continuously monitor military materials, update inventory information in real time, and ensure the supply chain Safety.
Now, the retail industry and agriculture are also researching and developing the use of RTLS system technology. In addition, there are cases where the RTLS system is applied to food preservation management, wireless warning, postal service “switch the light on”, semi-finished products management in manufacturing, and clothing classified warehouse management.
Introduction to Wireless Local Area Network
Features of wireless local area network
With the development of personal data communication in recent years, powerful portable data terminals and multimedia terminals have been widely used. In order to achieve the goal of enabling users to achieve data communication at any time and at any place, traditional computer networks are required to develop from wired to wireless, from fixed to mobile, and from single service to multimedia. As a result, wireless local area network technology has achieved rapid development. developing. With the rapid development of the Internet today, it can be considered that wireless local area networks will be the trend of future development and will eventually replace traditional wired networks.
Recent wireless local area networks, also known as WLAN (Wireless LAN), are generally used in broadband homes, inside buildings and parks, with typical distances covering tens of meters to hundreds of meters. The current technology used is mainly 802.11a/b/g series. WLAN uses wireless technology to transmit data, voice and video signals in the air, as an alternative or extension of traditional wiring networks. The emergence of wireless local area network has made the problems encountered by the original wired network easily solved, and it can allow users to expand and extend the wired network at will. As long as the wireless communication is realized through wireless devices such as wireless access points, wireless bridges, and wireless network cards on the basis of wired networks. Without traditional wiring, it provides all the functions of a wired LAN, and can freely change and expand the network according to the needs of users to realize mobile applications. The wireless local area network frees individuals from their desks, enabling them to obtain information anytime and anywhere, and improving the efficiency of employees’ work. Generally speaking, compared with traditional wired networks, the application value of wireless local area networks is reflected in:
1. Mobility: Since there is no cable restriction, users can move and work in different places, and network users can access information in real time no matter where they are.
2. Easy wiring: Because there is no need for wiring, the tedious work of wiring through walls or ceilings is eliminated, so installation is easy and the network construction time can be greatly shortened.
3. Flexible networking: Wireless LAN can form a variety of topological structures, and can easily expand from the point-to-point mode of a few users to the infrastructure network of thousands of users.
4. Cost advantage: This advantage is reflected in the fact that when the user network needs to rent a large number of telecommunications dedicated lines for communication, the self-built WLAN will save users a lot of rental costs. In a dynamic environment that requires frequent movement and change, the investment in wireless LAN is more rewarding.
In addition, the wireless network communication range is not restricted by environmental conditions. It can transmit tens of kilometers outdoors and tens or hundreds of meters indoors.In terms of network data transmission, there are also security encryption measures equivalent to wired networks
Wireless LAN application environment
The wireless era is coming, which means that you can enjoy the freedom and flexibility of work in any place that is convenient for working, such as meeting rooms, medical rooms, classrooms, cafeterias, laboratories, offices, and picnic tables in the wild. The wireless network is becoming the fundamental and necessary cooperation tool for every enterprise. The new development of wireless local area network technology is manifested in higher speed, better interoperability and security. The high flexibility and reliability of wireless local area network can increase productivity immediately, and it has achieved remarkable results in its wide application in various industries, showing a very broad market prospect, and it will create a new style of life and work.
Medium wireless LAN topology
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The characteristics of all these wireless LANs make it widely used in the following fields
1. Mobile office environment: the environment used by mobile workers such as large enterprises and hospitals;
2. Difficult to wire environment: historical buildings, campuses, factory workshops, urban buildings, large warehouses and other environments that cannot or are difficult to wire;
3. Frequently changing environment: active offices, retail stores, ticket offices, hospitals, as well as field surveys, experiments, military, public security, banking and finance, etc., as well as mobile offices, network structures frequently changing or temporarily established LANs;
4. Public places: airlines, airports, freight companies, docks, exhibitions and trade fairs, etc.;
5. Small network users: office, home office (SOHU) users
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