Humatics Corp., a three-year-old technology startup spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has expanded its product offering millimeter-scale radio frequency (RF)- based micro-location solutions to include ultra-wideband (UWB) technology for industrial manufacturing, as well as for smart cities, transportation and other applications. This month, the company acquired 5D Robotics and its subsidiary, Time Domain, an RTLS firm .
With the acquisition, Humatics reports, it can now develop solutions that suit a variety of needs for its customers, ranging from highly precise location data needed in robotic manufacturing to wider, less precise coverage for tracking the movements of assets or inventory for the purpose of monitoring safety or supply chain-based data. The difference lies in how specific the location data needs to be, the firm explains, as well as the required read range. Humatics’ RF solutions pinpoint location within millimeters at a range of up to 30 meters (98 feet), and (with the inclusion of Time Domain technology) also within a few centimeters from a distance of up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) using microwave radio transmissions.
Humatics was co-founded by David Mindell, the company’s CEO and an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics with a background in sonar and navigation technologies. His co-founder, Gary Cohen, the company’s president and COO, has a background in early-stage and advanced technology research and development.
Humatics’ solution has centered around –an RF-pulse-based transmission, in order to provide very high precision location of tagged items. It uses what it calls its Spatial Intelligence Platform analytics software to manage data captured from devices they term base stations installed around a user’s facility, or attached to drones or robots—to enable applications in which people and robots work together, for instance.
With the Humatics technology, a company could, for example, employ robotics for its manufacturing processes, in which very specific location data must be identified. A component in the manufacturing process could be tracked to the millimeter level, so as to allow assembly to take place without human input.
Several manufacturers are currently piloting this technology for manufacturing automation, Mindell reports, though they have asked not to be named. The technology is also being piloted in the transportation and rail sectors. He declines to specify how the technology is being used.
Time Domain, located in Hunstville, Ala., has offered its UWB technology for nearly two decades. It released its first UWB chipset in 1999, under the product name PulsON. The firm’s UWB system provides a wider location granularity of a few centimeters, it reports, but a longer read range. In that way, it is well suited for use cases such as smart-city applications, for which automated vehicles, for instance, might be able to operate safely around the public.
Each Time Domain tag beacons its unique identifier via a microwave pulse—the same bandwidth used by Humatics’ solutions. With the acquisition of Time Domain, Humatics says it can now reach a wider audience with fully commercialized UWB solutions, as well as the highly precise RF solutions it already offered. The goal, Mindell says, is to not only sell both very precise and UWB solutions, but also offer a blend of the two technologies.
For example, a company may have a UWB tag applied to a component, a material for use in manufacturing, a forklift or an individual. According to Mindell, the goal is for Humatics to offer a flexible approach that will be able to blend the high-precision RF technology now being piloted with the UWB technology, in a single solution.
With a tag attached to a forklift, for example, the system could identify the location of that vehicle in close enough granularity that it would prevent collisions and track the forklift’s path. However, zones within a facility or work area could be established wherever greater granularity is required, such as in manufacturing, in which robotics depends on very precise location information to complete assembly processes.
“We have existing customers who are interested in both” the UWB and high-precision RF-based solutions, Mindell states. “Our plan has always been to combine the two technologies,” he says, adding that the acquisition of Time Domain enables that combination.
The company’s plan now is to engineer solutions for its existing and potential customers in the manufacturing industry, as well as in other sectors, such as transportation. Humatics makes its own RF hardware, including tags and base stations.