With the popularization of mobile Internet and the rise of Internet of Things applications, indoor positioning has become a rigid demand, and has broad application prospects in retail, catering, logistics, manufacturing, oil and gas, electric power, medical and other industries. With the demand for consumption and industrial upgrading and the development of wireless communication technology, various indoor positioning technologies are progressing rapidly. Based on Bluetooth technology, the related hardware devices have been updated to Bluetooth 5.0. In this article, SKYLAB will briefly introduce the principle of Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning technology and the advantages of Bluetooth 5.0 positioning technology.
Bluetooth 5.0
From the perspective of positioning technology, Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning technology also relies on Bluetooth positioning. Its positioning principle is the well-known Bluetooth positioning principle, which is calculated based on the RSSI positioning principle. The cost and positioning accuracy are higher than version 4.0/4.2. At present, in order to meet the growing needs of indoor deep-level positioning such as indoor service robots, mobile precision marketing, and emergency assistance, SKYLAB has launched a series of Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning products, including Bluetooth 5.0 modules, Bluetooth 5.0 Beacon, Bluetooth 5.0 work cards and Bluetooth 5.0 gateways to help upgrade indoor location services.
SKYLAB Bluetooth indoor positioning solution According to different positioning terminals, SKYLAB Bluetooth indoor positioning solution is divided into terminal side positioning and network side positioning.
Bluetooth indoor positioning solution
Bluetooth terminal side positioning is composed of terminal devices (such as smart phones embedded with SDK software packages) and Bluetooth Beacons. To deploy Bluetooth Beacons in the area where positioning is required, generally at least three Bluetooth Beacons need to be laid. The positioning algorithm requires at least knowing the RSSI values of three points to accurately calculate the positioning.
Indoor positioning on the Bluetooth network side consists of Bluetooth terminals (such as wearable Bluetooth devices, Bluetooth bracelets, etc.), Bluetooth gateways, wireless LANs and back-end data servers. Deploy the Bluetooth gateway in the area that needs to be positioned. When a user holding a Bluetooth terminal device such as a Bluetooth bracelet enters the Bluetooth signal coverage of the Bluetooth gateway, the Bluetooth gateway can sense the broadcast signal of the Bluetooth bracelet, and then calculate the RSSI value of the Bluetooth bracelet, and transmit it to the WiFi module in the gateway through the serial port.
The architecture of the Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning system is shown in the figure below:
Bluetooth 5.0 Indoor Positioning System Architecture
The working principle of SKYLAB Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning system: iBeacon works in the broadcast state to broadcast information, the Bluetooth positioning card scans and collects iBeacon broadcast information and forwards it to the Bluetooth 5.0 gateway, and the Bluetooth 5.0 gateway sends the received iBeacon information to the CLE positioning server. The CLE positioning server runs the position positioning engine algorithm to perform positioning according to the badge and iBeacon information.
Advantages of Bluetooth 5.0 Indoor Positioning System
The Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning system can greatly reduce the hardware deployment cost of the Bluetooth gateway. The Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning system adopts the Bluetooth 5.0 hardware solution, and the Bluetooth 5.0 work card scans the ibeacon information as a relay, and transmits the information to the Bluetooth gateway. This can greatly reduce the use of Bluetooth 5.0 gateways and reduce the deployment cost of Bluetooth gateways, thereby reducing the cost of indoor positioning hardware.
SKYLAB provides integrated solutions for Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning systems, including:
(1) Mature Bluetooth positioning engine algorithm;
(2) Bluetooth 5.0 gateway, Bluetooth 5.0 work card, ibeacon beacon and other hardware. Bluetooth gateways, beacons and other hardware products are rich in series and powerful, and can be applied to Bluetooth positioning applications in various scenarios.
Advantage analysis of Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning solution:
Bluetooth 5.0 is mainly aimed at low-power devices, with twice the transmission speed, four times the transmission distance and eight times the broadcast packet data carrying capacity compared to Bluetooth 4.2. In addition, Bluetooth 5.0 introduces some functions that can be applied to a wide range of potential Internet of Things, such as indoor positioning assistance. Combined with WiFi, indoor positioning with an accuracy of less than 1 meter can be achieved. Finally, in order to meet the needs of mobile clients, Bluetooth 5.0 consumes less power and is compatible with older versions. Compared with the previous Bluetooth indoor positioning solution, in the Bluetooth 5.0 indoor positioning solution, the Bluetooth 5.0 gateway, Bluetooth 5.0 Beacon and Bluetooth 5.0 work card are used together to transmit longer distances, larger data packets, and faster data rates.