Apr 26, 2017U.K.-based asset-tracking solutions company Acumentive is offering a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system in partnership with Fathom, to bring real-time location capabilities to its low-cost, easily installed asset-locating solutions. The resulting hybrid system can track items or individuals within zones, and can do so within a few meters at locations where that level of location granularity is necessary.
The partnership with British Columbia-based industrial indoor location technology firm Fathom allows Acumentive to serve two needs: tracking beacons only when they pass a beacon receiver in areas where zonal coverage is enough, and zeroing in on a specific location with the same beacon tag, using a Fathom Hub installed in that area.
Several companies are currently in discussions with Acumentive to use the technology to identify where a tag is located and where it moves to in real time, in places such as production areas. Also being discussed is the use of zones in warehouses or storage areas, to define where a tag was last seen.
For several years, Acumentive has offered its SenseAnyWare, zero-infrastructure platform that allows users to locate beacon tags using only a beacon dongle plugged into a PC or other computing device, says Martin Kruse, Acumentive's founder and managing director. The company began developing its technology during the past few years to deliver very low-cost location tracking.
Acumentive worked with ArjoHuntleigh, a maker of specialty beds for hospitals, beginning in 2015. The company wanted to provide bed location tracking services to its customers so that they could better manage the beds that they rented or purchased, as those beds were moved around the medical facility.
Installing real-time location system (RTLS) or RFID readers throughout a hospital was too expensive for ArjoHuntleigh's purposes, Kruse says, so Acumentive began working on its zero-infrastructure solution. According to Kruse, the company determined that since nurse workstations are equipped with PCs and tend to be installed at the entrance to many hospital zones, the company could simply plug a low-cost beacon dongle into the PC, provide software to manage beacon transmission data and supply beacon tags to track beds or other assets. Acumentive makes its own beacon tags—designed to be lost-cost—that transmit data only (as opposed to also receiving transmissions) and have a long battery life.
In addition, Acumentive offers an app for Android or iOS devices so that workers can use their smartphones or tablets to conduct inventory searches or audits.
The release of the Raspberry Pi single-board computer device makes the solution even lower in cost, Kruse adds, since a dongle can be plugged into this computer as well. The device can then capture beacon transmissions from examining rooms, laboratories or other locations, in the same way that nurse station PCs do.
However, Kruse says, "Zonal tracking is great for a lot of projects, but doesn't always provide enough." Acumentive and its reseller, BT Global Services, are working with a window manufacturer, for instance, that makes products that move through the production process on carts, for which it requires more specific location data than merely a zone. At the same time, however, because zonal coverage is sufficient in other parts of the facility, the company sought a hybrid approach. Traditionally, that might require several systems with multiple types of technology and tags.
However, Kruse says, he began working with Fathom earlier this year, which has begun offering a system that uses Fathom's location technology, including a Fathom Hub that serves as a gateway device. When beacon tags transmit their unique ID number, says Shawn Bouchard, Fathom's director of marketing and strategic partnerships. The Fathom Hub uses directional antennas built inside the receiver to accurately locate the source of the transmission, and then forwards that data back to a server hosting Acumentive's software via an Ethernet cable or a Wi-Fi connection.
The companies expect to launch deployments during the coming weeks. They report that piloting is likely to consist of a full deployment of the systems, in order to properly determine how the technology covers the areas in which highly granular location data is needed, as well as those dedicated to zones only.
In the meantime, Kruse says, "We have relationships in place and a demo center with BT [Asset Trace] opening in London," where prospective customers can view the hybrid system in action.
Acumentive focuses on five industries: health care, telecommunications andutilities (its largest customer is BT), and logistics and manufacturing. According to Kruse, customers in all three sectors are poised to benefit from the technology. In health-care, for instance, system could be used to locate specific equipment movements within a room in some portions of a hospital, such as a lab or operating room. In the utilities and telecom market, the technology could provide a real-time view into the location of equipment in an engineering center, and zonal location in warehouses or workers' trucks. Finally, for manufacturing and logistics, the technology can track the movements of components or products through assembly processes in real time, and zonally in warehouses or storage yards.
The entire installation, Kruse adds, requires only the beacons, dongles and software, while a hub would need to be installed with the Fathom real-time location option.
"We're very excited about this partnership," Bouchard says. "Since we're focused on location-based technology, but don't do the analytics layer, we think we [Fathom and Acumentive] are able to build a great solution."
