Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System Starter Set HW (915/868MHz) Supporting Ultrasonic and ToF

Description

• High precise(±2cm) indoor tracking system for robot and human positioning.
• Ultrasonic, ToF, and trilateration technology to measure the distance.
• Station beacon installed on the walls or ceilings and mobile beacon installed on the human body and robots.
• Beacons coverage radius up to 50 meters.
• 4 station beacons, 1 mobile beacon and 1 modem. The modem can support up to 250 beacons.

Marvelmind Indoor Navigation is an indoor GPS for 2D/3D tracking. The system is based on stationary ultrasonic technology to get the location information from the mobile beacon. The station beacons are equipped to receive the ultrasonic signal from the mobile beacon. The propagation delay from each station beacon will be calculated through ToF(Time of Flight) and trilateration to measure the distance between each beacon for locating the mobile beacon. It can provide (±2cm) precise location data for the use of autonomous robots, vehicles (AGV), and copters. It is also used to track other objects that the mobile beacon installed upon, for example, virtual reality (VR) systems, helmets for construction workers. 

This system contains 4 station beacons, one mobile beacon, and one modem. Station beacons will be mounted on the walls or ceilings to measure the distance between each other. They communicate with each other wirelessly in ISM band(915/868MHz).  Mobile beacons are installed on the human body or robots via UART or SPI or I2C or USB for GPS tracking. The GPS coordinate will be calculated and sent to the modem. All those beacons can be charged by Lipo battery or USB. The modem is the central controller of the whole system. It can gather the position information from the mobile beacon 16 times per second and finally confirm the location. 

Key requirements for the proper system functionality:

• For 3D (X, Y, Z) tracking – An unobstructed sight by a mobile beacon of three or more stationary beacons simultaneously
• For 2D (X, Y) tracking – An unobstructed sight by a mobile beacon of two stationary or more stationary beacons simultaneously.Distance to the nearest 2 or 3 beacons – not more than 30 meters (recommended). In ideal conditions – up to 50 meters

Features

Distance between beacons

• Reach up to 50 meters in lab conditions
• Recommended distance is 30 meters (Transducer4 to Transducer4 looking straight at each other and other transducers are off)

Coverage area

• Reach up to 1000 m2 with the Starter Set configurations
• Coverage for larger territories is similar to cellular networks

Location precision

• Absolute: 1–3% of the distance to the beacons
• Differential precision: ±2 cm

Location update rate

• 0.05–25Hz
• Can be set manually
• Depends on the distance between the mobile and stationary beacons (shorter distance — higher update rate)
• Depends on the number of mobile beacons: for example, update rate of 25Hz for 1 mobile beacon will result in update rate of 25Hz/2 for 2 mobile beacons, and 25Hz/3 – for 3 mobile beacons, etc
• Depends on the radio interface profile (500kbps vs. 38kbps)
• Slightly depends on the number of stationary beacons — different than for mobile beacons

Power supply

Internal:

• LiPo battery 1000mAh
• Battery lifetime depends on usage
• Stationary beacon with 16Hz update rate => up to 72h (tested)
• Stationary beacon with 1Hz update rate => ~72h*16 => 1 month
• Mobile beacon with 8Hz update rate – 12h (tested)

External:

• micro-USB – recommended for permanent use

Weight

Mobile beacon from Starter Set:

• 59 grams (including battery 1000mAh and housing and antenna 50mm)
• 27 grams (bare board w/o battery)

Dimensions

• 55x55x33 mm (with 50mm antenna: 55x55x65mm)

Videos