UWB Indoor Positioning: SWOT Analysis

Recently, indoor positioning has emerged as a useful approach to improving the productivity and safety of many end-user applications, including manufacturing.

Many production companies displayed their interest in exploring the technology, as it has a proven ability to provide them with data that can help them reduce costs and improve asset utilization.

UWB, short for Ultra-Wideband, has been the most popular technology used for industrial indoor positioning. Research has shown that UWB is the most effective technology for real-time indoor positioning and continuous tracking in industrial environments.

In fact, the latest iPhone models will also be equipped with the technology for these purposes, according to reports.

If you’re interested in finding out more about UWB indoor positioning systems for manufacturing or other areas, read our brief review of the technology featuring a SWOT analysis below.

The Basics of UWB Positioning

UWB is one of the most accurate and promising indoor tracking technologies. It’s based on very short Radio Frequency (RF) signals using wide frequency band (see Figure 1 below) with a low power spectral density.

Figure 1. UWB spectrum compared to other localization technologies. Credit: Dabove, P., Di Pietra, V., Piras, M., Jabbar, A. A., & Kazim, S. A. in EEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium.

UWB-based indoor positioning has gained a lot of attention as the most promising technology because:

• UWB data rate is high and can reach 100 Megabits per second
• UWB technology reduces the impact of interference due to multipath and different forms of radio communication thanks to the high bandwidth
• UWB-based positioning has a high precision rate, which makes it perfect for applications that require highly accurate results
• UWB has low power requirements. Indoorway Location Tags, for example, can last up to a year without recharging.

These characteristics of UWB signal make it the best choice for indoor positioning and tracking in industrial environments. That’s why UWB-based Real-Time Location Systems (UWB RTLS) are a hot topic now, as many manufacturers are researching the technology as an opportunity to track assets and processes for performance analysis.

We listed the reasons why UWB is the most suitable choice for “smart factories” in one of our previous blog posts, so give it a read if you’d like to know more.

If you’re researching the viability of applying a UWB real-time tracking systems, too, you’ll find this SWOT analysis of UWB technology useful.

UWB Positioning: SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS

• High accuracy of up to 30 centimeters, which allows a quick location of assets in large, complex industrial facilities
• Large bandwidth that reduces the effect of communication devices such as smartphones and radio
• Produces very short pulses
• High level of multipath resolution
• Low power requirements that allow keeping energy costs low
• A lack of interference with the existing radio-based systems
• The ability to penetrate different materials and work in highly metallic environments
• Speed of installation; UWB RTLS can be installed within one day.

WEAKNESSES

• Depending on the number of UWB tracking infrastructure elements, short pulses may take a long time to sync
• The need to install power backup to ensure continuous operation of UWB RTLS in case of a power outage.

OPPORTUNITIES

• The short pulses make UWB useful for non-communication purposes
• Indoor asset locating and tracking
• Construction sites management
• Military applications
• Effective asset management in noisy, metallic-rich environments
• Medical applications that require sub-millimeter accuracy
• Location and performance statistics for athletes.

THREATS

• In some cases, UWB RTLS may not be completely immune to multipath effects
• Implementation and maintenance of RTLS require qualified experts.

As you can see, even though the implementation and maintenance of UWB RTLS requires expert control, the advantages of using the technology are numerous and clearly outweigh the costs.

Precise UWB Indoor Positioning: Where to Start?

If you’d like to explore and implement UWB indoor positioning solutions for manufacturing, you can use the assistance of RTLS providers.

Our team of RTLS installation experts at Indoorway, for example, is experienced in installing and maintaining the RTLS infrastructure, so this process can be carried out without any interruptions in manufacturing processes or your enterprise IT systems.

Don’t hesitate to visit our website indoorway.com or contact our manufacturing experts about how UWB RTLS can help you to improve asset utilization and process optimization.

Also, if you’d like to know more details about UWB indoor positioning and how it can help you to make production processes more efficient, take a look at How to Use Asset Tracking to Optimize Manufacturing Processes.