Asset Tracking

Make sure that the mesh network is big enough, so that all possible asset locations are surrounded by enough mesh nodes. In general, the position accuracy becomes better in central areas of the mesh network, where the tag is surrounded by a big number of mesh nodes. In border areas the position might become unstable, as the situation becomes ambiguous for the tracking system.

In general the accuracy improves with the number of mesh nodes. The more mesh nodes are able to receive the tag’s signal, the more measurements can be used by the tracking system to compensate the high fluctuations of the BLE signal strength. If accuracy is of importance, consider adding more mesh nodes to important areas. The distance between the mesh nodes should not exceed 8 meters. A distance of 5 meters or less is recommended.

Both accuracy and latency is becomes better, whenever the tag location is very close to the location of a mesh node. As a rule of thumb, one can say, that the position accuracy grows with the distance to the nearest mesh node. If accuracy is of importance in a certain area, at least one mesh node should be placed in close proximity to the area-of-interest. As soon as the distance between the asset tag and the mesh nodes decreases, the accuracy improves accordingly.

As a consequence of the previous point, it is recommended to place mesh nodes on the same level/height as the assets are expected to move. Mounting the mesh nodes on the ceiling is possible. But one must consider that an increased height difference between asset tag and mesh nodes makes the high fluctuating signals more and more undistinguishable, effectively deteriorating the accuracy.

People or obstacles like walls or furniture deteriorate the position accuracy, as these objects weaken the signal in an unexpected way for the tracking system. Although calibrating the tracking system can reduce the effects of obstacles and walls to a certain degree, one should first check, whether signal blocking can be avoided right from the beginning, e.g. by choosing a different mesh arrangement or indoor environment.

Whenever possible, prefer standstill positioning over motion tracking. In standstill, the asset tracking system can collect much more measurements over time, which makes it possible to reduce the signal fluctuations and improve the position accuracy. Furthermore, in standstill the asset tag reduces its power consumption by turning off its motion sensors and transmitting the BLE signals very infrequently. As a lot less measurements will be transferred over the mesh, the number of supported asset tags increases, as well in standstill periods.

If it is already known beforehand that certain areas are unreachable for an asset, consider explicitly excluding these areas from the tracking system by coloring them black in a wallmap. The asset tracking system makes sure that tags will not be positioned in these areas. A wallmap limits the space of possibilities and makes it easier for the system to track the assets through the building.

A simple functional test with a minimum number of devices can be used to check, whether server, gateway and mesh setup has been set up correctly. At least 4 mesh nodes, 1 asset tag and 1 gateway are necessary for this test. The mesh nodes should have a position, where they can be reached by the tag to a very close distance (< 1m distance), e.g. by placing them in the corners of a room.

Infrastructure test: To check, whether the mesh infrastructure is set up correctly, place the asset tag in close proximity (<1m) to a mesh node and wait up to 60 seconds until the asset tag is positioned correctly in the tracking view in the BlueRange admin portal. Repeat this step for each mesh node. If the asset tag is not located correctly, please check, whether you have positioned all mesh nodes correctly on the floor plan.

Localization test: To check, whether the asset tracking system is set up correctly, place the asset tag in the middle of the test area, so that it is surrounded by all mesh nodes and no obstacle can block the signal. Wait up to 60 seconds until the asset tag is located between all mesh nodes with a more or less accurate position.

To check, whether the accuracy and latency of BLE is sufficient for your purpose, a mesh network with at least 20 nodes should be set up. The mesh network should cover at least three rooms, so that transitions from one position to another one can be tested with a big distance in between. The mesh nodes should be installed as they would be in productive use (e.g. installed on the ceiling). If installed on the ceiling, check, whether the "mesh node height" is correctly configured in the BlueRange admin portal. After installing, enrolling and positioning all mesh nodes on the floor plan, make sure that a wallmap has been uploaded to your floor, as well. After mesh installation, the tracking system must be calibrated, as described below.

Accuracy and latency test: After setting up the system, you can test the asset tracking system. Start by placing the asset tag in one room for about a minute and then placing it in a different room. If the accuracy or latency are not sufficient yet, consider rearranging your mesh network as described in the guidelines above. In most cases adding more mesh nodes to areas, where location accuracy is important, can significantly improve the accuracy and latency of the tracking.

Please follow our detailed BlueRange Hardware Installation Guide for steps on how to physically set up your hardware.

Before you are able to use asset tracking you need to have acquired a valid license and you need to have a setting on your gateway that activates this feature. See the IoT Features Setting. If no suitable license is available, the status of the gateway will change to "non compliant" when you try to activate the Asset Tracking feature in the IOT Functionalities setting of the gateway configuration. The License can be checked for asset tracking in BlueRange portal. See License.

As mentioned in the beginning, you should already have all necessary devices (gateway, mesh node and asset tags) enrolled in the BlueRange platform. Make sure that you didn’t position the tag on the floor plan with the BlueRange Setup App. A fixed position on the map will prevent the tag from being tracked.

Before you can work with asset tracking, you need to set up a building that contains at least one floor with one network that is assigned to this floor. This floor must have a floor plan. All mesh nodes and the gateway must be positioned on the floor plan. This ensures that all necessary geographic information are available and permits you to see the position of your tracking tags on this floor plan. Also make sure that the width, height and the mesh node height is correctly configured in the floor. If possible, you should also upload a wallmap to the floor. The wallmap is a black-and-white image with the same size as the floor plan. Trackable areas have a white color, whereas non-trackable areas have black color.

Before the asset tracking can be used, it must be calibrated. A calibration can compensate the shielding effect of the indoor environment to a certain degree and enhance the accuracy of the tracking system. Cf. the chapter on Calibration for more info.

If you want to find out the floor and position of any of your trackable tags, log into our Portal and look for the tag. You can navigate to Devices to get a complete list of devices and search for your device. Alternatively, you can go to the Network Overview page of the Home Network of the tag. Next, select your tag and open the details page. You’ll see a map of the floor where the tag is currently located along with its position.

Notice, that you will also be able to see where the tag is currently located in the building structure, including floor, room and zone in the information panel.

If you want to see all tags that are located on one floor, you can open our Portal, go to your building and select one of the floors in the navigation pane on the left. Next, open the Tracking tab. You’ll get a list of all devices that are currently being tracked on this floor.

Click on History to follow the historic positions of your tag.

We also offer another view that is helpful for determining the historic movement of a tag. Go to any of your tags that is being tracked by either selecting it from a list of devices or by double-clicking on it on the map view. Next, select the Tracking page.

You will now see a list of position changes that shows where your tag has been in the last two weeks. The position icon on the left tells you if the tag has been located or if the location has been temporarily lost or the tag was moving.

Each entry will show you the location in your building structure, where your tag was located. While the graphical representation on the floor plan is useful to monitor the recent movement, this list is useful to find out in which room our zone your tag was staying for a prolonged time.

Using the carousel arrows to the left and right allows you to view the position based representation that accumulates the events based on the positioning

Quickly finding a device that is being tracked is possible though the List of tracked devices which is available under > Devices > Tracked Devices. You can use this list to quickly find out where your devices are currently located.

When using Geofences, our platform generates MQTT events once a trackable tag enters or leaves a defined region. You can process these events from all clients that are connected to our BlueRange MQTT Broker. If you want to browse and verify these events, take a look on how to use the MQTT Explorer.