How POZYX can benefit your business
Our world keeps spinning at a dizzying pace, propelled by the technology that enables almost every part of our daily life. Technology allows us to measure, draw conclusions, and perform complex tasks otherwise out of reach to humanity. As humans we’ve developed a relationship with technology, and as tech developers, one of the central dilemmas is: how will the technology I’m building relate to mankind in the real-world? To answer this question, we must understand our locations and positioning within a particular space. This is what this article aims to do.
In order to determine the position of a point in a three-dimensional space, two basic data metrics are required.
The position values of a known reference point. These values will be denoted by three values called coordinates and denoted by [x, y, z]. If we define X as the distance required to move forward or backward, Y as the distance required to move right or left, and Z as the distance required to move up or down, we can define the position of a point in a three-dimensional space. It is often common practice to mark the coordinates of the reference point with = [0,0,0] [x, y, z] so that the beginning of the axis will be the reference point, but this is not always the case.
Define the location of the reference point. Using the same reference, the point’s position will be marked with three numbers [x, y, z].
In order to define the position of an object that has volume in an accurate way, three other values must be defined. These values will indicate the angular orientation of the object in space, but this is a topic for another article. Let’s get back to business.
There are two types of positioning: inertial and non-inertial.
Inertial Systems In inertial systems there is a computer that holds the starting position set for it. In addition, there are physical sensors on the system called IMU (inertial measurement unit). These sensors provide information about the results the system is sensing. These values are processed by the computer and emit the calculated position of the system. Think of it like a lost person who closes their eyes and “counts steps” to understand where he is. A system that uses an inertial navigator doesn’t rely on an external source that can provide reliable information about a location. That’s why such systems and mechanisms are suitable, for example, for use in situations where external signals cannot be received. At some point in time the system is defined as its "true" position relative to the reference point ([0,0,0] = [x, y, z]). From now on, the system uses acceleration sensors attached to it to calculate its location.
Non-Inertial Reference Frame A non-inertial system uses an external source to determine its location. Examples include GPS navigation systems that use vehicle navigation, and radars to detect the range and direction of distant objects. Take bats (yes, the animal) for example - they navigate space using a process called echo-location. They produce supersonic waves at frequencies between 12kHz and 160kHz and the amount of time it takes for these signals to hit the wall in front of them and return to their ears allows them to understand how far away they are from where they need to land.
ENTER POZYX. The better, faster, more cost-effective alternative to GPS & Bluetooth.
An interesting system developed in the field of inertial positioning is called POZYX. Solving the problems of accurate location in closed spaces - what GPS cannot provide. It is 20 times more accurate than Bluetooth, and 50 times more accurate than GPS.
The system consists of three types of components:
Tags - transmitters attached to objects that the system wants to track.
Anchors - receivers located at known points in space.
Administrator server - receives all the information and presents it to the user.
Similar to the way bats use voice to know their location in space, the tags transmit signals to the anchors at a radio frequency. This position calculation technique is called "multilateration". The tag transmission received at one of the anchors allows the user to know the distance between the two points. In this mode, we can draw a circle whose center is the position of the anchor we know, and its radius is the distance between the anchor and the tag.
If we add a second anchor (whose location is also known), we get two circles, each of which will be the distance between the tag and the anchor in the center of each circle.
Such a system would give us two possible solutions represented by the two points of intersection between these circles. The addition of a third anchor would produce a complete solution where only one of the two points we found earlier would also be common with the third circle created.
A three-anchor system creates a trilateration. Theoretically, any addition of an anchor to our system would produce the same solution we could find with three anchors, but in practice the space around us contains a large amount of interfering factors that distort and reduce the accuracy of a position. However, by using additional anchors, we are able to produce corrections to equations obtained using only three anchors.
The POZYX system communicates with a technology called UWB (ultra wide band).
This transmission technology uses wideband wireless communication to overcome interference to the quality of communication such as stationary[1] , additional transmitters in the area and various types of noise that occur along with the signal. The frequency range of UWB technology is 3.1-10.6GHz, a very wide allocation range in terms of transmitting and receiving systems.
Applications that use this technology are private networks (high-speed short-range traffic) as well as low-speed long-distance communication systems such as imaging and radar systems. UWB technology excels at transmitting information in areas with interfering factors and at blocking obstructions such as walls, spaces with metal parts, and user-saturated areas.
POZYX uses UWB communication to enable multilateration capability in user saturated areas and having significant comfort factors. You can use this system to track an infinite number of objects in three-dimensional space, and exactly submetric (up to 10cm).
As previously mentioned, Bluetooth communication allows an accuracy of up to 1 meter, and GNSS communication (including GPS) allows an accuracy of up to 6 meters.
The system is very intuitive and can be easily configured for space with diverse density levels. In addition, it contains a number of tools for managing the tracking of the objects that sport the tags. Using these tools, you can get an accurate snapshot of these objects: location, route, and location in mapped spaces.
The POZYX system is not limited to the tools that exist within it and publishes a convenient software interface for building shell applications such as smart management of spaces and alerts, management of disaster areas, protection of high security spaces , monitoring of robotics tools and more. You can communicate on system servers using standard HTTP or create an IoT infrastructure that communicates with the MQTT protocol and using simple SDK’s you can connect your tags to any robotic platform.
If it wasn’t already obvious, here at XYZERON, we’re big fans of POZYX (and it’s not just because both our names have X,Y, and Z in them). The better, stronger, faster, more accurate cost-efficient counterpart to Bluetooth and GPS is here, and it’s in the POZYX platform. So how can you implement it and take advantage of it in your company? That’s where we come in, assisting you in implementing it to achieve your goals- whatever they may be.
In our most recent case study, we completed the construction of a smart system for managing an extensive evacuation event for a large industrial plant in Israel’s southern region. The system smartly and dynamically assigns safe areas according to the location of each person present at the scene of the incident. In addition, the system updates in real time on the status of the evacuated manpower and the number of people who have reached the safe area.
inferiority?
Check out more about our projects at - www.xyzeron.com