Real Time Locating Systems in 2012  By Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

2011 was a momentous year for Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) - systems that remotely locate tags on things, animals or people, usually in 3D and in near-to-real-time. RTLS does not rely on readers being brought close to the tag or to portals where the tag is read when it passes, its previous and subsequent location being subject to heroic assumptions. Here we share some of the research carried out by IDTechEx for its new report, "Real Time Locating Systems 2012-2022" www.IDTechEx.com/RTLS.  In this report, IDTechEx forecasts that the RTLS market will rise from $255 million to only $293 million in 2012 but then powering up to nearly $4 billion in 2022.

Active versus Passive RFID tags, systems, software and services 2012-2022

Early success
In the previous decade, the subject had taken off with rapid adoption in heavy logistics. Leader WhereNet made excellent profits and was latterly acquired by the $1 billion Zebra Technologies also of the USA. Its proprietary system became the basis of an ISO open standard. At the same time RTLS proved very popular in US Hospitals in particular for tracking both staff and assets driven by the fear of lawsuits for negligence and the theft or misplacement of up to 5% assets every year. Overstocking of mission critical devices such as defibrillators could be avoided when they could be found instantly when they were needed. Baby theft could be eliminated and many other benefits accrued. However, no one technology was dominant, with WiFi (partly using existing infrastructure with radio fingerprinting) being popular thanks to companies such as AeroScout and Ekahau. Add UHF and 2.4 GHz systems from Awarepoint, GE healthcare selling the products of two developers and many others and alternative, non-RFID options such Sonitor ultrasound where only the room needs to be identified. There have even been some multiple technologies such as infrared with RFID. Awarepoint real-time awareness solutions are now at work in over 150 facilities supporting and serving nearly two million high acuity patients each year.

Diagram: Source: IDTechEx, Real Time Locating Systems 2012-2022. View website: www.IDTechEx.com/RTLS

New waves of market penetration
By contrast, 2011 saw somewhat slower growth of RTLS in heavy logistics and healthcare, the ongoing recession-proof growth of this embryonic market being created by a wide variety of newer applications notably in oil and gas, mining, aerospace and manufacturing. This was much more than diversification of existing technologies into new industries and sectors however. For example, in January 2011, Essensium signed a contract with Flightcare and POM Vlaams-Brabant to track and trace vehicles at Brussels National Airport using its "wide over narrow band" RTLS. By September 2011, Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (TSX: DPM) had implemented AeroScout's Wi-Fi RFID for tracking people, equipment and vehicles in Chelopech mine in Bulgaria. Worker safety and productivity are improved both on the surface and underground.

UWB comes to the fore
The very technology was changing too. For example, Ultra Wide Band (UWB), whether using Time of Arrival, Time Difference of Arrival or Angle of Arrival or combinations of these now gives superlative tolerance of electromagnetic interference, proximate metal and water and accuracy at a not too high price. Ubisense of Cambridge in the UK, now specialising in UWB RTLS for manufacturing in the main, graduated from earlier start up to a successful stock market flotation in 2011. Trading was at £2.20 a share, up almost a quarter on the IPO price and giving the company a market capital of over £47million. Ubisense has big plans for its RTLS, which company CEO, Richard Green, believes could be as big as GPS (he calls it indoor GPS). He wants Ubisense to become Cambridge's next £1 billion company.

Zebra Technologies had earlier acquired Multispectral Solutions, the UWB RTLS supplier that won the bidding for people location in the challenging environment of the BP Cherry Point refinery in New York. Thus a frequency band that had been forbidden has become the basis of one of the most popular forms of RTLS.

New forms of WiFi RTLS
Things also changed with WiFi RTLS. Here Ekahau of Finland now claims "hundreds of satisfied customers". In 2011, at the IDTechEx "Energy Harvesting, RTLS & WSN" event in Munich, Samsung revealed a completely new approach seeking to save the cost of Wi-Fi AP database management by sharing each service provider's AP DB. It expands the Wi-Fi AP DB (WiFi application database) coverage consistently by importing other service provider's AP DB and saves on the cost of regular Wi-Fi AP DB update by using AP DB synchronisation between service providers. In particular, this approach enables indoor/outdoor seamless location tracking and service globally using shared Wi-Fi AP DB, claims the company, and installations in a Korean healthcare facility and residential building and in logistics in Singapore were described. In the previous decade, Samsung had been little known in the RTLS business.

ZigBee derivative
On the other hand, DecaWave technology from Ireland was shown to enable precise location systems and wireless sensing networks through the IEEE 802.15.4a standard. That means the location of objects anywhere to a precision of 10cm with a range of up to 450m using its chips which are five times lower in power than 802.15.4 ZigBee transceivers. Indeed, they are likely to be much lower in cost, size and power than other potential 802.15.4a offerings. Over 45 evaluation kits were delivered by year end.

WSN starts to give position
RTLS is only rarely based on ultrasound or infrared, so it is popularly called second generation active RFID. Third generation active RFID is focused on sensors in mesh networks where the small device doing the sensing is called a node. It functions as both an RFID tag and a reader in this self-healing, self-organising network rather like the Internet. However, the last year has seen commercially viable forms of WSN where the position of the node can be known fairly accurately, thus providing competition for traditional RTLS where positional information is the prime objective, not sensing.

Winners and losers
The crudest form of RTLS failed to gain market share. This is the so-called Cell ID or Zonal RTLS, where little more than, "It came within reader range so I know where it is" is all that is on offer. However, 2011 saw better solutions for such applications as heavy logistics in the form of combined systems usually involving GPS with GSM or other options. In September 2011, Ubisense announced the acquisition of InMaps (Integrated Mapping Services), providing further traction in the US geospatial market. It complements Ubisense work in geospatial as it provides an operational support system for GE services. InMaps specialises in services for electric and gas utilities, providing a suite of products which integrate with GPS and geospatial products.

Indeed, in the same city of Cambridge UK, in November 2011, Cambridge Silicon Radio unveiled capability which may feed back into RTLS technology. Instead of relying solely on GPS to determine position, the "SiRFstarV" architecture gathers real-time information from GPS, Galileo, Glonass and Compass (when operational) satellites, multiple radio systems, such as cellular and Wi-Fi, and multiple MEMS sensors, like accelerometers, gyros and compasses. It then combines this real-time information with ephemeris data, mapping, cellular base station and Wi-Fi access point database information. Multiple technologies had reached a new level of virtuosity. Clearly with the burgeoning territorial and technological coverage described and multiple paybacks in more and more industries, the RTLS industry is set for further healthy progress in 2012.

For more information on RTLS read "Real Time Locating Systems 2012-2022" www.IDTechEx.com/RTLS or visit the "Energy Harvesting and Storage and RTLS & WSN Europe" being held in Berlin on 15-16 May. Visit: www.IDTechEx.com/EH for more information.

For further information on the RTLS report or any of IDTechEx's market research please contact Sarah Atkinson at: s.atkinson@IDTechEx.com

For further information on the Energy Harvesting and Storage and RTLS & WSN Europe event contact Cara Harrington at: c.harrington@IDTechEx.com

Scheduled  Events:
Electric Vehicles: Land, Sea & Air USA 2012 | March 27-28 | San Jose, CA | www.IDTechEx.com/evUSA

Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics Europe 2012 | 3-4 April | Berlin, Germany| www.IDTechEx.com/peEUROPE

Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe 2012 | 15-16 May | Berlin, Germany | www.IDTechEx.com/eh 

Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS Europe 2012 | 15-16 May | Berlin, Germany | www.IDTechEx.com/eh 

Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics Asia 2012 | October 3-4 | Tokyo, Japan | www.IDTechEx.com/events 

Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA 2012 | December 5-6 | Santa Clara, CA | www.IDTechEx.com/events  Refer to next page

Customized RFID Tags introduced by Uson to
speed throughput of electronic products leak testing

Global electronic products manufacturers (including AV and outdoor lighting products) seeking the highest standards of lean manufacturing by using RFID tags for parts identification and information tracking can now use a unique electronic label system built by Uson with both standard and custom components tailored to application requirements.  The custom elements of Uson RFID tags streamline parts processing and help manage test data while cutting overall production cost.   

Joe Pustka,  one of the top managers of Uson's technical support team who has helped pioneer the custom RFID tags now used by Uson customers in various industries comments, "The potential of Uson's custom RFID tags technology to help manufacturers get better performance from their leak detection equipment is enormous.  For starts, an RFID chip residing on a test part can store:  serial number, part number; lot number; the build plant and/or production line; date of manufacture; expiry date; part size, shape and color; leak detection test parameters and results such as pressure, leak rate, and flow rate; and other recorded test measurements recorded such as length, weight, or torque.  Uson's custom RFID tags have been especially helpful to manufacturers of disposable parts that work together with a module or console.   In these applications, when the parts are connected to the console the RFID tags enable the console to know exactly what is connected to it and what the physical parameters required for the test solution to proceed.  With RFID tags such as these, any business manufacturing products that are leak tested can create smart linking to end-user consumers, ensuring that the supply chain gets each customer the product with correct specifications."

Uson provides specifications for custom RFID tags with both its Leak Detector Express Proposal and Leak Detection Equipment Custom Application Proposal services upon request and at no charge. Uson's no-cost training courses on state-of-the-art leak detection methodologies include discussion of best practices for parts identification using RFID tags, bar coding, among other techniques used for more efficient production lines.

Uson in profile
Uson first developed high accuracy leak testing methods for NASA and since 1963 has been at the forefront of commercial leak detection, leak testing, and non-destructive testing, pioneering the development of automated leak detection equipment for the automotive, industrial, medical device and packaging industries.  Headquartered in Houston, TX, the company has additional offices in Detroit, MI, the United Kingdom and China and sales partners around the world.   Visit www.uson.com  for more information.

For further information, e-mail: Rudolph.fuentes@uson.com or view website: www.uson.com  Refer to page 195