Hybrid RTLS

A real-time location system (RTLS) tracks anything that carries a tag or a phone, including:

• Vehicles: RTLS systems can be used to track the location of cars, trucks, and other vehicles within a facility or across a wide area.
• People: RTLS systems can be used to track the movements of people within a facility, such as employees, visitors, and patients in hospitals.
• Assets: RTLS systems can be used to track the location of valuable assets such as tools, equipment, machinery, and inventory within a facility.
• Products: RTLS systems can be used to track the movement of products within a facility or across a supply chain, from manufacturing to delivery
• Animals: RTLS systems can be used to track the location of animals in farms or research facilities.
• Mobile devices: RTLS systems can be used to track the location of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, which can be useful for managing mobile workforces or tracking inventory.
• Containers: RTLS systems can be used to track the location and movement of containers, such as shipping containers or storage containers.

With Ubudu, each located asset can also trigger an action: an alert, a webhook into your systems, or a light on its tag (Pick-to-Light).

A Hybrid RTLS system can be implemented in any environment where real-time location data is needed to optimise processes, improve safety, and enhance the customer or user experience.

One of the advantages of implementing a Hybrid RTLS system is that different technical architectures proposed by Ubudu can be used to find a suitable solution for all kinds of environments and use cases.

Ubudu combines Ultra-Wideband (UWB) where precision matters, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) across the rest of the site, and BLE AoA anchors for high ceilings, all on one platform. LoRaWAN and GPS trackers from partners cover outdoor and long-range needs.

Depending on the environment and use case, Ubudu can recommend a technical architecture that provides the optimal balance of accuracy, range, battery life, and cost-effectiveness.

From tools and machinery in a manufacturing plant to equipment and staff in a hospital, the architecture is chosen for your site and your use case.

Ubudu's Hybrid RTLS system provides high accuracy in location tracking, thanks to its use of various technologies and sensors.

With Ultra-Wideband (UWB) TDoA (Time Difference of Arrival), a tag's position is accurate to under 50 cm in industrial or complex environments, such as manufacturing plants and warehouses, and to under 20 cm in controlled ones.

To find one item up close, Precision Finding on the Hybrid Tag 4.0 guides you to within about 10 cm through an iOS app.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) gives zone-level accuracy of 2 to 5 m, depending on the environment, and BLE AoA anchors reach 0.5 to 2 m on sites with high ceilings.

Ubudu also uses the tags' accelerometers to refine the positions it calculates.

In practice: UWB where you need the exact rack or workstation, BLE where knowing the zone is enough, with the same tags and platform for both.

The frequency at which the tag position can be updated with Ubudu Hybrid RTLS depends on the specific technology used and can be configured based on the requirements of the application.

With Ultra-Wideband (UWB), positions can be updated every 100 ms at best, for manufacturing plants or hospitals where every second counts.

With Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), positions can be updated every second at best, which is enough to know which zone a trolley or a piece of equipment is in.

To save battery, tags report more often when they move and less when they are still.

The update rate is set per site and per use case, balancing how live you need the map against battery life.