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Bluetooth Technology is Driving IIoT

Bluetooth technology is playing a transformative role in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), facilitating the digitisation and networking of manufacturing operations to address economic, supply chain and regulatory challenges. This wireless technology enables comprehensive data collection, monitoring, and analysis across interconnected devices, which are critical to the automation and efficiency goals of Industry 4.0.

Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology has growing importance in industrial settings. According to the 2023 Wireless Connectivity Market Analysis by Techno Systems Research and ABI Research, the market for Bluetooth-enabled industrial devices is projected to grow significantly, from 143 million annual unit shipments in 2023 to over 611 million by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34%. Real-time location systems (RTLS) and asset tracking represent the largest market opportunity due to the availability of low-cost Bluetooth LE tags offering high-accuracy location services.

The second-largest growth area is commercial building automation, which is forecast to expand rapidly, from 8.5 million unit shipments in 2022 to over 135 million by 2028. Other notable markets include Bluetooth LE condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, expected to reach 7 million and nearly 10 million annual unit shipments respectively by 2028.

Robotics is another significant area of opportunity, where Bluetooth LE is enabling autonomous navigation and robot-to-robot communication. Mobile robots, in particular, stand out as they can relay crucial operational data such as position, load, and battery levels, while also allowing for dynamic updates to tasks and routes via Bluetooth-connected devices.

Key advantages of Bluetooth technology in industrial applications include its low power consumption, resilience to interference, robustness, and integration with existing mobile, computing, and IoT infrastructure. Its ability to provide real-time insights into factory operations through extensive data collection, combined with advanced wireless System-on-Chip (SoC) technologies, facilitates improved decision-making and operational adaptability.

This technological advancement extends beyond operations, linking the design and manufacturing processes. By connecting tools like CAD directly to machine tools, Bluetooth enables seamless communication to streamline production, reduce bottlenecks, and enhance product design for simpler manufacturing. These capabilities yield higher productivity, reduced product failures, cost savings, and environmental benefits, revolutionising not only how products are made but also how factories are managed and adapted.

New BluetoothLEView by NirSoft

NirSoft has released a new application for Windows called BluetoothLEView. This lightweight tool is a standalone .exe file that does not require installation, making it easy to use on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

BluetoothLEView detects and monitors nearby Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) devices, including beacons. It displays detailed information such as the device’s MAC Address, Name, Signal Strength in dBm (RSSI), Manufacturer ID, Manufacturer Name, Service UUID, first and last detection times, the number of times the device has been detected and more.

To use BluetoothLEView, your PC or laptop must have an internal Bluetooth adapter that supports Bluetooth LE. You can check if your system is compatible by opening Device Manager, selecting Bluetooth, and looking for “Microsoft Bluetooth LE Enumerator” in the list of devices.

If your computer does not have an internal adapter, you can plug in an inexpensive USB Bluetooth adapter that supports Bluetooth Low Energy.

How Beacons Revolutionise Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Logistics and supply chain operations are constantly seeking innovative technologies to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and security. Beacons have emerged as a transformative solution, enabling a range of applications across the industry. Here, we explore how beacons are revolutionising logistics and supply chain management.

Real-Time Asset Tracking

Beacons allow for the seamless tracking of assets, ranging from raw materials to finished products, as they navigate through the supply chain. This real-time visibility helps organisations monitor the location and movement of shipments, optimise logistics processes and mitigate risks of loss or misplacement. By providing continuous updates, businesses can make more informed decisions and ensure the smooth flow of goods.

Enhanced Inventory Management

Inventory accuracy is a critical component of supply chain efficiency, and beacons play a key role in automating stock level monitoring. By reducing reliance on manual checks, they provide up-to-date insights into inventory levels, enabling businesses to reorder efficiently and avoid issues like stockouts or overstocking. This automation not only improves operational efficiency but also reduces costs.

Safeguarding Perishable Goods

For goods that are sensitive to environmental conditions, such as food or pharmaceuticals, beacons equipped with sensors monitor variables like temperature, humidity and light exposure. This ensures that items remain within safe conditions throughout their journey, maintaining quality and compliance with industry standards. Such monitoring is particularly vital for the cold chain, where temperature control is paramount.

Warehouse Optimisation

Within warehouses, beacons track the precise location of items, simplifying the process of locating goods and optimising storage layouts. By automating stocktaking and improving workflow, beacons reduce the time spent searching for items and enhance overall warehouse efficiency. This leads to faster order fulfilment and better resource management.

Improved Fleet Management

Beacons also bring significant advantages to fleet management by tracking the position and condition of vehicles in real-time. This data allows logistics managers to optimise routes, improve dispatch accuracy, and maximise vehicle utilisation. Enhanced visibility of fleet operations translates into cost savings and improved delivery performance.

Predictive Maintenance for Equipment

The health of equipment such as forklifts, cranes and conveyor belts is crucial for uninterrupted operations. Beacons monitor key metrics related to equipment performance, enabling predictive maintenance that prevents breakdowns. By receiving timely alerts when maintenance is due, companies can reduce downtime and extend the life of their machinery.

Ensuring Worker Safety

In large logistics facilities, beacons are used to monitor the location of personnel. This allows managers to identify potential hazards and respond to incidents promptly. By providing alerts when workers enter restricted or high-risk areas, beacons contribute to a safer work environment and help mitigate accidents.

Supporting Cold Chain Logistics

Cold chain logistics, essential for products like food and medicine, relies heavily on temperature control. Beacons provide continuous environmental monitoring, ensuring that goods are stored and transported under the correct conditions. This safeguards product quality and maintains compliance with stringent industry standards.

Enhancing Cargo Security

Cargo security is a top priority in logistics, and beacons offer robust solutions by tracking goods within secure zones and sending alerts if items are moved without authorisation. This level of monitoring reduces the risk of theft and bolsters security protocols, particularly for high-value shipments.

Using Support Vector Regression (SVR) with Beacons

A new study (pdf) explores optimising Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon-based indoor positioning systems using support vector regression (SVR). It addresses the challenge of accurately identifying building occupants’ locations in real time, a critical requirement for applications such as emergency evacuations and asset tracking. Traditional methods, including trilateration and RSSI-based techniques, can face limitations like signal interference and non-line-of-sight issues.

The research adopts a fingerprinting method that uses pre-trained SVR models to improve positioning accuracy. BLE beacons, which are cost-effective and energy-efficient, were deployed across a controlled environment, and extensive RSSI data was collected and pre-processed. The model’s hyperparameters were fine-tuned to achieve optimal performance. Experimental results demonstrated a significant improvement in accuracy, with the lowest root mean squared error (RMSE) recorded as 0.9168 feet.

The findings underscore the potential of machine learning, particularly SVR, in enhancing the reliability of indoor positioning systems. This study provides a benchmark for future research, highlighting its practical applications in emergency scenarios and the advantages of BLE technology in such implementations.

Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring

In a previous post we asked ‘What is Productivity?’ and shared how the first wave of IT productivity related to cloud computing, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) was only taken up by the top 5% frontier companies.

We explained how IoT, 4IR and AI machine learning will improve productivity but again, likely only for frontier companies. The difference this time is that the newer technologies will have more far reaching consequences. The frontier companies will further extend their reach over the laggards. The majority of the 5% are large companies with large budgets who are able to engage consultances such as IBM, Deloitte, Atos, PwC, WiPro, Accenture and KPMG. But what of the small to medium enterprises (SMEs)? Can they compete?

In most countries, a large proportion of companies are small to medium size. For example, in the UK, the Office for National Statistics says 98.6% of manufacturers are (SMEs). These organisations are more price sensitive and usually don’t have the luxury of significant financial resources for engaging the top consultancies and implementing their expensive solutions. Small and medium sized organisations have previously found it difficult to digitise due to the lack of availability of reasonably priced solutions.

However, solutions doesn’t have to be expensive. Low cost sensors such as Bluetoooth beacons, motion cameras, consumer AR can be combined with affordable cloud services to create solutions on a ‘shoestring’ budget. This is the aim of the University of Cambridge and University of Nottingham’s ‘Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring’ initiative. The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is helping manufacturers benefit from digitalisation without excessive cost and risk. View the project’s latest news.

Read about Beacons in Industry and the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR)

What is Productivity?

Our article on the Benefits of Beacons mentions that the data from beacons can enhance productivity. However, what does this mean? ‘Productivity’ seems like a nebulous term that means nothing. Can beacons, and indeed IT in general, increase productivity? Has there been any evidence for this in the past? Will things such as IoT, 4IR and AI machine learning actually improve productivity?

A great place to start quantifying productivity is the France-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They have lots of open data that shows recent productivity gains have been small for most countries. This is a puzzle.

Why hasn’t technology improved productivity significantly? There’s a great post at Focus Economics on 23 economic experts weigh in: Why is productivity growth so low? There’s also speech on Productivity puzzles (pdf) given by Andrew G Haldane, Chief Economist, Bank of England with lots of charts. The UK’s ‘Be the Business’ organisation tasked with driving better productivity also has a useful paper (pdf) on How good is your business really?

The key theme is that not many businesses have adopted earlier productivity improving tools such as cloud computing, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP). There are sectoral patterns of productivity improvement that tend to delineate ‘frontier’ and ‘laggard’ companies. There’s a very long tail of laggard companies that weights the numbers. There’s a fear of technology brought about by inertia and poor management.

Some countries such as Germany have slightly higher productivity but that’s considered to be due to better vocational education rather than technology.

There have been recent improvements in productivity but only for the top 5% frontier companies. These companies have embraced technology as part of improving operational efficiency, future planning, employee engagement, leadership and commercial excellence.

We anticipate IoT, 4IR and AI machine learning will improve productivity but again, only for frontier companies. The difference this time is that the newer technologies will have more far reaching consequences. The frontier companies will further extend their reach over the laggards. This might have existential consequences for many of the laggards.

Improving Bluetooth Location Accuracy

New research focuses on enhancing indoor localisation using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology by addressing challenges in signal instability and noise. The authors propose a system combining the Kalman filter for signal smoothing and deep learning models, specifically Autoencoders and Convolutional Autoencoders, for feature extraction from Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data. The method uses a fingerprinting approach, collecting data in two phases, offline for creating a reference database and online for matching new measurements to predict locations.

The study demonstrates that integrating the Kalman filter with the Convolutional Autoencoder model yields an average localisation error of 0.98 metres, significantly improving accuracy. Experimental comparisons with existing methods highlight the proposed system’s effectiveness in balancing cost, energy efficiency, and precision. The findings suggest this approach as a robust solution for indoor localisation in environments requiring high accuracy and low energy consumption.

UWB vs Bluetooth Beacons

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology has recently emerged as a contender to Bluetooth beacons, with some companies traditionally focused on Bluetooth now marketing UWB as the next generation solution. But does UWB live up to the promise?

UWB undeniably offers a key advantage: more accurate location tracking. With its ability to determine positions down to tens of centimetres, it surpasses Bluetooth in precision. However, this comes with significant trade-offs that should be carefully considered before adopting the technology.

One of the critical drawbacks of UWB is the lack of standardisation. Unlike Bluetooth, which operates on a well-defined and widely supported Bluetooth LE standard, UWB devices are proprietary. This means users are locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem, unable to mix and match devices from different suppliers. If the chosen vendor’s devices become obsolete, the entire solution becomes redundant, forcing costly upgrades or a complete overhaul.

The lack of standardisation also impacts the broader ecosystem. Bluetooth devices benefit from a vibrant market with multi-vendor compatibility, driving competition and keeping costs low. In contrast, UWB solutions rely on custom protocols, devices, and specialist skills, leading to higher costs and limited interoperability. While Bluetooth beacons have a range of up to 50 metres, and even 200 metres or more for certain devices, UWB typically operates within a range of 30 to 40 metres. Some advanced Bluetooth devices can even reach up to 1 kilometre, providing greater flexibility in many applications.

Power consumption is another area where Bluetooth outshines UWB. Bluetooth beacons are designed to operate efficiently, often lasting months or even years on a single battery. UWB devices, on the other hand, are more power-hungry, typically lasting only weeks in positioning applications. This makes them less practical for long-term deployments, especially in IoT scenarios where low maintenance is a priority.

Scalability is a growing concern with UWB. The technology generates and needs to process more data than Bluetooth, which can lead to bottlenecks and reduced performance as the network expands. This poses challenges for large-scale deployments, where simplicity and efficiency are critical.

Moreover, UWB’s compatibility is limited when compared to Bluetooth’s universal presence. UWB devices are primarily detected by iOS devices, with limited support on Android. This constrains their usability in a diverse market. Bluetooth, in contrast, is supported by virtually every modern smartphone and a large number of third party gateways, making it a more versatile choice.

Bluetooth beacons also offer greater functionality beyond location tracking. They can perform various sensing tasks, such as monitoring temperature, humidity, air pressure, light levels, and even detecting smoke, water leaks, or proximity. UWB, being narrowly focused on location tracking, lacks this flexibility, limiting its utility in IoT applications.

Ultimately, the decision between UWB and Bluetooth depends on your specific needs. If you require extremely precise location tracking within a limited range and can accommodate the higher costs and proprietary nature of UWB, it may be worth considering. However, for most use cases, Bluetooth remains the more efficient, flexible and cost-effective option. Its standardisation, broad compatibility, and multi-functional capabilities make it a reliable choice for tracking and IoT applications alike.

Framework for Evaluating Indoor Tracking Systems

There’s new research outlining the use of the MobiXIM framework for developing, evaluating, and refining indoor tracking systems (ITS), addressing challenges related to the lack of standardisation in the field. Indoor tracking, necessary where GPS is ineffective, relies on methods such as infrastructure-based (e.g., Bluetooth beacons using Received Signal Strength Indication), infrastructure-less (inertial and magnetic sensors) and collaborative systems (peer-to-peer communication between devices). These approaches encounter issues like accuracy, reproducibility and data collection costs.

MobiXIM integrates tools to streamline the ITS creation process, incorporating a mobile app for data collection and a web-based orchestrator platform. It employs Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) iBeacons, both physical and virtual, to enhance location estimates. Physical iBeacons are commercial devices broadcasting signals detectable by smartphones, while virtual iBeacons simulate these signals for testing scenarios without physical deployment. The signals allow devices to calculate their proximity to a beacon, correcting their location estimates based on signal strength.

The framework’s plugin-based architecture promotes modularity, enabling researchers to mix and match existing algorithms. The methodology includes filtering noise from sensor data, positioning via algorithms like Pedestrian Dead Reckoning, and correcting errors through collaborative adjustments among devices and beacon signals. The corrected data is evaluated using metrics such as positioning accuracy and trajectory similarity.

Experiments in a university building demonstrated how collaboration between devices and interaction with beacons significantly improved accuracy. The replay feature of MobiXIM allows researchers to simulate and adjust experimental setups, testing variables like beacon density and device collaboration.

iBeacons play a critical role by providing a reliable reference point for error correction and enhancing the overall accuracy of indoor positioning systems, particularly when combined with collaborative algorithms.

Why Investing in Beacons with Larger Batteries Pays Off in the Long Run

When deploying Bluetooth beacons for your project, it’s tempting to opt for less expensive models with smaller batteries. However, this short-term savings approach can lead to significant long-term costs and operational headaches. By spending more upfront on beacons with larger batteries, you can dramatically reduce the time and expense associated with battery replacements over the life of your deployment.

The capacity of a beacon’s battery, measured in milliamp-hours (mAh), directly impacts its operational lifespan. Let’s compare some common battery types used in beacons:

CR2032: 250 mAh
CR2450: 500 mAh
CR2477: 1000 mAh
2 x AA Lithium: 3000 mAh

A beacon using a CR2032 battery might last about 1-2 years, while one with a CR2477 could last 3-4 years under similar conditions. However, beacons with larger batteries, such as those using 2 AA lithium batteries, can last significantly longer, potentially up to 3-4 times the lifespan of a CR2477-powered beacon.

Consider a scenario where you’re deploying 1,000 beacons in a large facility:

Scenario 1: CR2032 Beacons

Initial cost: £10 per beacon
Battery life: 1.5 years
Replacement frequency: Every 18 months
Labour cost: £20 per beacon replacement

Over a 5-year period:

Initial investment: £10,000
Replacements: 3 times
Total replacement cost: 3 * (1000 * £20) = £60,000
Total 5-year cost: £70,000

Scenario 2: AA Lithium Beacons

Initial cost: £25 per beacon
Battery life: 4.5 years
Replacement frequency: Once in 5 years
Labour cost: £20 per beacon replacement

Over a 5-year period:

Initial investment: £25,000
Replacements: 1 time
Total replacement cost: 1 * (1000 * £20) = £20,000
Total 5-year cost: £45,000

In this example, despite the higher initial cost, the beacons with larger batteries save £25,000 over five years, a 35% reduction in total costs. Put in your own labour cost to determine your actual calculation.

Beyond the direct cost savings, longer-lasting batteries offer several other advantages:

Reduced Operational Disruption: Fewer battery changes mean less interruption to your beacon network’s functionality and less disturbance to the environment where they’re deployed.

Lower Environmental Impact: Using fewer batteries over time reduces waste and the environmental footprint of your beacon deployment.

Improved Reliability: Beacons with larger batteries are less likely to fail due to power issues, ensuring more consistent performance of your location-based services.

To maximise the benefits of larger batteries, consider:

Adjust Transmission Power: Lower the transmission power if the full range isn’t needed, significantly extending battery life.
Optimise Advertising Interval: Increase the interval between broadcasts where possible. A 600ms interval is often sufficient for smartphone detection, while gateway detection can use even longer intervals.
Use Sleep Modes: Implement sleep modes during off-hours to conserve power, especially in locations with set operating hours.
Strategic Placement: Position beacons in areas with minimal interference to reduce power consumption needed for reliable transmission.

While the upfront cost of beacons with larger batteries may be higher, the long-term savings in both time and money make them a wise investment. By reducing the frequency of battery replacements, you not only save on direct costs but also minimise operational disruptions and improve the overall reliability of your beacon network. When planning your beacon deployment, consider the total cost of ownership over the project’s lifespan, and you’ll likely find that spending more initially on higher-capacity batteries pays off handsomely in the long run.