Highlights:

• Leading edge solutions built around Globalstar IoT satellite technology are helping conservationists in Africa to monitor and protect near-extinct rhinoceros from poachers
• Low-cost ST100 chipset is at the heart of wildlife tracking platform provided by specialist Globalstar Value Added Reseller Wintec Solutions
• Satellite technology means tracking of free-roaming animals is ubiquitous and transmissions uninterrupted, even when beyond GSM mobile networks’ reach

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc., the next-generation international telecommunications infrastructure and technology provider, announced today that its IoT (internet of things) satellite technology is being used to protect multiple endangered species of wildlife in Africa.

Leading-edge satellite-enabled tracking devices incorporating Globalstar’s small and lightweight ST100 chipset are being used to monitor rhinoceros, part of a widespread concerted effort to protect these nearly-extinct wild animals from illegal poachers.

This is the most recent project carried out by Globalstar Value Added Reseller, Johannesburg-based Wintec Solutions, a specialist technology and solutions provider with extensive experience in animal tracking for wildlife conservation.

Rhinoceros are the subject of widespread illegal killing by poachers across Africa. Wintec Solutions deployed GSatSolar, the latest addition to Globalstar’s IoT satellite tracking solutions portfolio. GSatSolar is an innovative Sun-powered tracking device built around Globalstar’s economical ST100 satellite IoT transmitter. Low-cost and simple to integrate, GSatSolar is a small and rugged satellite IoT tracker ideal for wildlife monitoring. Rhinos are fitted with the device via ear tagging or collar. Other novel ways of deploying the devices are also being explored. The device is also suitable for livestock tracking.

Nature reserves in Africa are expansive, spanning as many as 20,000 hectares in remote bush regions. Their perimeter fencing is often breached by criminals and poachers attempting to gain access to, and kill, the animals within. Such reserves, which are home to as many as 200 free-ranging rhinos, typically are established in locations where GSM mobile signal does not exist. Only satellite communications can provide the always-on connectivity to enable uninterrupted monitoring of the animals.

Significant advantages of GSatSolar are its small size and light weight, so as not to irritate the animal, as well as its robust structure. Furthermore, its low cost makes the solution easily scalable for tracking large herds of wildlife and farm stock. “Its physical attributes make GSatSolar a game changer, and transform the possibilities for wildlife conservation and livestock management,” says Rene Winter, Director of Wintec Solutions.

Globalstar-enabled solutions are at the forefront of today’s conservation activities in Africa; Wintec Solutions is additionally playing a role in the preservation of other African species. Researchers at Giraffe Conservation Foundation are using the system to monitor giraffe migration, and for keeping safeguarding tabs on animals which have been reintroduced into the wild. “We are currently trialling GSatSolar ear tags on giraffe in Namibia. The first units were deployed in June this year and, while field trials are still ongoing, the data received so far are very promising. We’re looking forward to deploying more units in the future and testing them in different countries,” said Dr Courtney Marneweck, Science Data Coordinator at Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Wintec Solutions is also deploying satellite technology and Globalstar-enabled animal tags in collaboration with veterinary authorities and research students for wild buffalo protection activities in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Buffalo migration is being monitored so conservationists and government authorities can understand and mitigate the potential spread of Bovine Tuberculosis. In another project, the application of Globalstar-enabled trackers is being tested on pangolins, yet another severely endangered species.

The tracking platform UI developed Wintec Solutions includes an informative mapping portal that tracks the animals’ individual and group movements. Monitoring the rhino, or other wildlife, also informs as to grazing habits, locations of the best nutrition, seasonal breeding habits, as well as the animals’ general health and well-being.

Winter said:

“Our wildlife preservation activities take place well beyond the reach of GSM mobile; Globalstar’s satellite network, with its ubiquitous reach and reliability, is a fundamental enabler in the operations being carried out to protect endangered species.”

“Globalstar created the ST100 transmitter to meet the widespread need for easy-to-integrate, low-cost and lightweight monitoring devices that leverage satellite technology and the Internet of Things,” commented Mark O’Connell, General Manager at Globalstar EMEA & APAC. “We are absolutely delighted that solutions developed through the inventiveness and commitment of our partner Wintec Solutions are now playing such a pivotal role in the vital wildlife conservation activities today taking place across Africa,” he added.

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Berg Insight, the leading IoT market research provider, today released new findings about the market for Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders.

The number of participants in EM programmes on a daily basis in Europe, North America and Latin America amounted to about 50,000, 371,000 and 96,000 respectively during 2021. Berg Insight estimates that the number of daily users will grow to 77,000 in Europe, 821,000 in North America and 184,000 in Latin America by 2026. The market value in 2021 reached US$ 947 million in North America, US$ 224 million in Europe and US$ 75 million in Latin America. The total market value in the three regions combined is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 10.8 percent from US$ 1.2 billion in 2021 to US$ 2.1 billion in 2026.

Electronic monitoring (EM) programmes were first introduced in the US in the early 1980s. Today, EM is an established alternative to detention across Europe and North America and in some Latin American countries. The aim of EM programmes is to increase offender accountability, reduce recidivism rates and enhance public safety by providing an additional tool to traditional methods of community supervision. Policy makers, corrections authorities and private sector service providers advocate for extended EM programmes to reduce total correctional system costs and reduce the prison population.

There are two dominant technologies used for electronic monitoring – Radio Frequency (RF) and GPS. RF-based systems are today the most common type of solution in most European countries. In the US, Brazil and other countries in Latin America, GPS-based solutions are more common. A number of private companies are involved in the provisioning of EM, including supplying and installing equipment, providing monitoring as well as undertaking enforcement. Leading providers of EM equipment and services include US-based BI Inc. (GEO Group), Sentinel Offender Services, SCRAM Systems, Securus Technologies, Shadowtrack and Track Group; UK-based Buddi and G4S (Allied Universal); Israel-based Attenti (Allied Universal) and SuperCom; and Brazil-based Spacecom and Synergye.

“The electronic offender monitoring market continues to grow, partly driven by increasing adoption of GPS-based and smartphone-based solutions”, says Martin Backman, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight.

As the technology develops and proves to be effective in programmes in Europe, North America and Latin America, adoption will follow in additional jurisdictions. Software solutions that help officers to better manage their caseload are at the same time an increasingly important part of an EM solution.

Mr. Backman concludes:

“Modern data analytics tools can identify offender behavioural patterns and possibly also predict future EM programme violations or other offences.”

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Sierra Wireless HL78 Series module integrated into HIVE-ZOX tracking solution, providing seamless global connectivity and real-time visibility of COVID vaccine shipments.

Sierra Wireless, a world leading IoT solutions provider, today announced that its HL78 Series LPWA module has been chosen by HIVE-ZOX International to provide global connectivity and real-time visibility for their cold chain monitoring solution.

The solution is currently being used to monitor COVID vaccine shipments and provide quality control throughout the supply chain, all over the world.

Sierra Wireless’ multi-mode LPWA modules offer best-in-class power performance for global LTE-M, NB-IoT, and 2G networks, providing seamless global connectivity for the HIVE-ZOX solution. They offer a wide selection of bands for scalability across the world, and their high transmit power ensure a resilient connection, even in challenging underground or remote locations.

“The HL78 Series provides a cost-effective, secure and best-in-class power performance for low-bandwidth IoT applications. It has variants that support the latest Cat-M1/NB2 3GPP Release 14 standard, GNSS for precise location, 2G fallback for global coverage, a secure element for an added layer of security”, said Olivier Pauzet, VP of Product & IoT Solutions, Sierra Wireless.

“With extended reach beyond traditional cellular, the HL78 Series is ideal for real-time fixed or mobile applications such as asset or cold chain tracking, to help ensure that products are not compromised, and that there is complete transparency throughout their journey.”

“Originally, we were working with 3G & 4G communications, but quickly realized that we needed a global next-generation mobile IoT network solution to track and monitor assets,” said Charles Bourbonnais, CEO & Co-Founder, HIVE-ZOX International. “We chose Sierra Wireless’ HL7802 LPWA module to fulfill our global connectivity needs after they were recommended to us.”

“The module enables 2G fallback for truly global communication, and also includes GNSS for location,” continued Mr. Bourbonnais. “Further, the technical team have been regularly available to help us with any aspect of development and integration and to review any issues, and they prioritized deliveries for us even with the worldwide supply chain shortages and constraints so that we were able to push forward with production. Sierra has proven themselves to be a trusted partner, and their solution has been very effective.”

Based in Switzerland, HIVE-ZOX International creates innovative technology using the Sierra Wireless LPWA module to track and monitor products across their supply chains, in real-time. The HIVE-ZOX Solution is a cloud-based platform offering connected Monitoring as a Service (cMaaS) for global supply chains, from end-to-end at product level; tracking, identifying and monitoring environmental conditions of transportation and storage and providing 24/7 visibility. The solution helps to ensure quality control, reduces spoilage and waste, improves performance, ensures the compliance of industry regulations, saves time and costs, and guarantees product quality and the safety of assets throughout their journey.

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It is estimated that by the end of 2021, the total length of China’s high-speed rail (HSR) lines in service had reached 40,000 kilometers, which is long enough to wrap around the equator and ranks the first globally. High-speed rail is one of the China’s “Four Great New Inventions” and has attracted the world’s attention. Now the high-speed rail network that consists of four north–south high-speed rail lines and four east–west high-speed rail lines has been built, covering 92% of cities with a population of over 500 thousand, and will continue to expand to facilitate the public transportation.

The ongoing expansion of the high-speed rail also demands higher safety standards. Railway system is a complex involving multiple professions and types of work and composed of tracks, trains, vehicles, maintenance sites, power supply and transformation, communications, and command and control centers. To guarantee that all trains run in safety, they are serviced routinely after work every day. To standardize operational process at the maintenance site, fulfill the needs of delicacy management, and keep trace of the on-site operation, the data collection and supervision during the maintenance plays an indispensable role.

Maintenance sites which are often featured by complex spatial structure, metal framework, dense tracks and huge carriages that can easily block one’s view, pose a challenge to the deployment of positioning system. Blueiot high-precision positioning system is developed based on tens of thousands of self-owned interference models and core algorithm to achieve highly adaptive, stable and accurate positioning, which is what Blueiot has been striving for and what it is capable of.

High-Precision Locating System for Intelligent Railway

The high-precision positioning system for railway maintenance sites is formed by hardware layer, networking layer, data resolving layer and application layer. The hardware layer involves locating anchors and tags, and then the networking layer sends the data collected by anchors back to the resolving center which is key to calculating a tag’s location. As a result, in the application layer, all the location data of trains, staff, equipment and tools can be displayed in 2D or 3D mode.

Location of Trains

Blueiot High-Precision Locating System enables the accurate location and management of trains. With the vehicle-borne locating tag, the time of entry or exit will be recorded accurately. Meanwhile, the centimeter-level precision makes it possible to identify exactly on which track the train stops.

Security of Maintainers

When maintainers perform their daily task wearing the locating tag or wristband, their location and trajectory can be checked in real time. Under the coordination of video surveillance and the sound and light alarm, in case of any emergency, the safety of maintainers can be ensured with immediate rescue.

Management of Equipment/Tools

The maintenance center is usually spacious with numerous equipment and tools stored here. So it often takes a quite long time to look for any one of them, let alone keep track of a missing one. Blueiot High-Precision Locating System contains a specially designed tag for asset positioning and tracking, applicable to scotch blocks, AGV, and robots.

Supervision of Work Quality

Apart from staff tracking, Blueiot High-Precision Locating System is also adaptive to the scenario of intelligent inspection. After an inspection task is assigned, the arrival time and duration of the inspector as well as his/her inspecting region and trajectory will be recorded and compared with the settings to guarantee the quality of work.

Blueiot High-Precision Locating System is ready to provide accurate location data and positioning service in this respect and play a greater role in the standardization of work flow, the management and dispatch of maintainers, and the improvement of maintenance efficiency.

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• Ideal solution for IoT tracking applications now available
• Integrated solution delivers accurate positioning and shorter time-to-fix
• Alleviates cost and power limitations of traditional hardware GNSS solutions

Sequans Communications S.A., today announced the availability of low-power GNSS positioning capability on its Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT platform.

The integrated GNSS solution offers Sequans’ IoT customers accurate positioning with lower power consumption, removing the need of an external positioning chipset for an overall higher performing, lower cost tracking solution. The new technology is available on Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02SP module, a pin-to-pin compatible variant of Sequans’ Monarch 2 GM02S module, with an added GNSS antenna RF input, enabling existing Monarch 2 GM02S customers to take advantage of the added low power GNSS capability easily.

“We are pleased to add this tangible value to our Monarch 2 platform and offer it to our IoT customers,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO.

“Having low power GNSS on Monarch 2 widens its capabilities and makes many types of IoT tracker use cases more affordable because there is no need for additional positioning chips or modules.”

“Combined with our already small solution size and ultra-low-power capability, this new GNSS feature makes our Monarch 2 platform an ideal solution for customers launching new tracking products or enhancing existing products with tracking capability.”

The new low power GNSS capability on Monarch 2 leverages Nestwave technology and is ideal for a wide variety of intermittent tracking use cases, including car, bike, scooter, and other personal asset trackers; logistics and fleet trackers; pet, farm animal, and people trackers; emergency assistance beacons; and various types of smart city trackers. Monarch 2 GM02SP module offers multi-functional mode selection with power consumption in the range of a few hundred microwatt-hours per location fix. Power consumption can be adjusted for each fix depending on the use case or for a new triggered event such as emergency asset recovery.

“Sequans Monarch 2 platform is one of the most advanced LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity solutions in the industry today, and we are pleased that Sequans has adopted our advanced technology to add valuable, low power, accurate positioning capability,” said Ambroise Popper, Nestwave CEO.

Sequans’ GNSS is fully integrated with Monarch 2 and therefore is significantly less expensive than competing chip or module add-ons while delivering a level of accuracy on par with legacy GNSS solutions. The solution supports intermittent or recurrent IoT tracking use cases and allows users to choose from various levels of assistance and performance, depending on use case requirements. Sequans’ GNSS solution can be updated along with Monarch 2 firmware over the air (FOTA) upgrades, giving users instant access to feature upgrades as they become available.

Invoxia, a French company providing leading-edge tracking solutions, is one of Sequans’ first customers to adopt the new GNSS feature of Monarch 2 instead of using an external GNSS chip.

“We are focused on delivering tracker solutions with the highest value possible, and Sequans Monarch with integrated low power GNSS helps us achieve this,” said Amélie Caudron, Invoxia CEO.

“The IoT tracking market is forecasted to reach several hundred million in annual shipments over the next few years, spanning several logistics, agricultural, smart city, and personal tracking applications,” said Andrew Zignani, research director at ABI Research. “However, this market has more stringent power consumption, size, cost, and scalability requirements than traditional GNSS deployments. The arrival of low power GNSS integrated in solutions such as Sequans’ Monarch 2 platform can help keep the bill of materials as low as possible, enable less complex and swifter hardware designs, deliver smaller form factors, and provide greater flexibility, allowing the market to reach its true potential in the years to come.”

The Sequans Monarch 2 GM02SP LTE-M/NB-IoT module with low power GNSS geolocation technology is pin-to-pin compatible with Monarch 2 GM02S module. It features 23 dBm transmit power, a very high level of integration, ultra-low power consumption (1 microamp at rock bottom), a certified EAL5+ secure enclave for integrated SIM (ieUICC), compliant with GSMA standards, an integrated MCU, and Sequans’ Single-SKU RF front end, enabling deployment on any LTE band worldwide.

Monarch 2 GM02SP module samples and NEKTAR-B evaluation kits are available now to select customers.

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• More than 15,000 trackers and 250 antennas deployed at two key Safran Aircraft Engines production sites in France
• Using data from the trackers, Safran Aircraft Engines teams can remotely locate and manage all their tools and equipment in real time

Safran Aircraft Engines, a world-class aircraft engine manufacturer, was seeking a solution to optimize the tracking and management of its tools in large-scale production areas.

They needed a solution tailored to the specific metallic environment of the plants, and one that would not cause wave interference with the equipment within the industrial sites.

Orange Business Services was selected by Safran Aircraft Engines to equip two key production sites with its smart tracking IoT solution, which is based on an ecosystem of industry-leading partners specialized in geolocation technologies in industrial settings.

A Large-Scale, Customized Deployment

Using trackers, the solution makes it possible to accurately pinpoint locations within three meters in a complex environment. The trackers were placed on more than 15,000 specific tools, and 250 antennas were installed at two French plants: Villaroche and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, which measure 55,000 and 20,000 square meters, respectively.

Centralizing Data to Improve Business Processes

The teams in the Villaroche and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines plants can utilize data from the trackers to find out where their tracked tools are located – remotely and in real time – with the help of an integrated software platform adapted by Orange Business Services.

With smart tracking, Safran Aircraft Engines benefits from a tailor-made, precise and reliable digital solution that also optimizes the management and preventive maintenance of its fleet of tools.

Christophe Blayo, Head of tooling for commercial engines assembling at Safran Aircraft Engines, explains:

“We have chosen Orange Business Services as our trusted partner to provide a new innovative solution in our Industry 4.0 factory and to address our business challenges.”

“The Orange teams’ commitment throughout the implementation of the entire project was crucial for developing the optimal solution and deploying it effectively.”

“We are delighted to support Safran Aircraft Engines with its geolocation project and digitalization of its processes. With our dual expertise as a carrier and an integrator, we draw on our ecosystem of partners to bring market-leading technologies together, allowing us to best meet our customers’ needs across the entire value chain. This IoT integration project illustrates our ability to deliver a large-scale industrial project, tackle all the challenges that come with it and adapt our solutions in partnership with an innovative company like Safran Aircraft Engines — all of which has a positive impact on its business,” says Emmanuel Routier, Vice President, Industry 4.0 at Orange Business Services.

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Wirepas announces a new software package for Wirepas Massive Tracking, a software suite it launched earlier this year for high-density asset tracking applications.

The package is the next step in Wirepas’ ambition to offer customers a reliable, cost-efficient solution for massive and dense tracking; it supports fast inventory with up to 6000 devices in a minute with no packet loss and continuous tracking of hundreds of devices moving simultaneously in the same area.

“When you have large amounts of assets in a dense space, how do you track them cost-efficiently in close to real time? That’s a common challenge. It’s very hard. This is exactly what we set out to solve with Wirepas Massive Tracking, already tested and proven in real life. This second release is another step in our journey to make high-density tracking even more cutting-edge,” says Youssef Kamel, SVP, Smart Tracking at Wirepas.

With the new release Wirepas Massive Tracking includes dedicated algorithms and libraries to meet the demanding requirements of applications requiring high-density positioning – hundreds of devices moving simultaneously in the same area – and fast inventory with up to 6000 devices in a minute with no packet loss. This is required in applications such as

• Datacenter operations management
• Pallet tracking in a service center
• Livestock monitoring and breeding in extensive facilities

The new features have been used and tested for the past few years in the most advanced settings by the leaders of their trade. Now they have been added to the new Wirepas Massive Tracking software package to be used by all Wirepas partners.

Youssef Kamel, SVP, Smart Tracking at Wirepas, says:

“The combination of high-density inventory and indoor positioning has been key to our customers’ in data centers operations, pallet service centers livestock and farming, manufacturing and logistics.”

“I am super excited that we are introducing all these critical features in Wirepas Massive Tracking. All customers in logistics, farming, and industrial applications can now deploy end-to-end systems with continuous tracking and fast inventory.”

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Inpixon, the Indoor Intelligence company, today announced the Inpixon Personnel Tag, a compact, lightweight ultra-wideband (UWB) locator tag for Inpixon’s real-time location system (RTLS).

It is designed to deliver 30-centimeter accuracy to locate employees or visitors in real-time in order to support a variety of safety and security use cases.

The RTLS market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.8% during the 2020-2025 period, according to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, and the demand specifically for UWB technology-based RTLS solutions is anticipated to surge. The firm reports that, UWB offers higher accuracy and range with lower power consumption in comparison with most other RTLS technologies, leading to its increased penetration in applications requiring high accuracy.

Nadir Ali, CEO of Inpixon, noted:

“There are a number of situations where location precision is paramount, and safety and security applications top the list.”

“Finding an employee quickly in an emergency, executing an evacuation, mustering, identifying crowding, or locating unescorted visitors are just a few examples. Performing space and floor planning based on actual personnel usage patterns is another. RTLS can deliver increased visibility, safety, and productivity for corporate enterprises, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, healthcare and other industries. We’re pleased to offer this new tag through Inpixon and its reseller partners as well as to OEMs and integrators in white- and private-labeled options.”

The Inpixon Personnel Tag is used in conjunction with Inpixon’s UWB anchors and nanoLES location engine for an RTLS solution capable of supporting large-scale deployments. Key features of the tag in addition to its centimeters-level accuracy include wireless charging with industry-standard Qi chargers; a durable IP65 housing to protect against water, dirt and impact; over-the-air firmware updates; and wireless configuration to ease deployment and changes.

Adam Benson, CTO of Inpixon, said:
“The tag is small and light, yet our engineering team was still able to build in an impressive set of capabilities. For example, the tag’s configurable transmission rate — supporting up to 10 blinks per second — enables administrators to realize their ideal balance of updates and battery usage. And the onboard 3-D accelerometer allows for the tag to conserve battery life when not in motion. From form factor to performance, I believe this new tag is a great complement to our enterprise-class RTLS solution.”

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• OpticalLock‘s OPTi-100 monitoring system has patented sensors that detect motion, security status, humidity, location and other conditions for high-value fixed and mobile assets

• Telit’s xE910 modules ensure that OPTi-100 devices can always find a network, from legacy GSM through 4G LTE, including Cat M1, NB1 and NB2

Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced that OpticalLock is using the Telit xE910 family of modules to help railroads, shipping companies, storage facilities and other businesses monitor and secure high-value mobile and fixed assets.

The partnership is the latest example of how Telit enables solutions like OpticalLock to secure key parts of the global supply chain against piracy, which the International Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) predicts will drain $4.2 trillion from the world economy by 2022.

OpticalLock provides a comprehensive suite of connected solutions for monitoring, securing, tracking and recovering assets in shipping containers, trucks, planes, rail cars, security boxes, storage facilities and more. The suite includes the OpticalLock OPTi-100 product series, a palm-sized device whose shackle fits inside the eye rings designed for traditional locking mechanisms and provides status alerts.

The OPTi-100’s patented sensors detect motion, security status, humidity, location and other conditions. When there is a change, the OPTi-100 uses cybersecure, wireless communication to send an alert to the shipping company, asset owner or another authorized party. Customers can choose the version of the OPTi-100 depending on which wireless technologies they want to use. The OPTi-100A and OPTi-100B use the Telit xE910 family of modules, which support all major cellular technologies, from legacy GSM through 4G LTE, including Cat M1, NB1 and NB2.

The xE910’s network flexibility ensures that the OPTi-100A and OPTi-100B can maintain a constant, reliable connection, which is critical for securing high-value assets as they travel across a country, continent or the world. The xE910 also offers satellite positioning technology as an option, which OpticalLock uses for applications such as geofencing. At just 28.2 × 28.2 mm, the xE910 is highly compact, enabling OpticalLock to shrink the OPTi-100 to a palm-sized device.

“Telit’s technical expertise and technology are key for meeting our goals of designing a discrete, highly compact and internationally compatible solution,” said Jorge Sanchez, OpticalLock, CTO.

“Telit’s robust hardware portfolio provides OpticalLock the perfect size, global compatibility and quality of connectivity to make our hardware design a reality.”

Dennis Kelly, Senior Vice President Americas Sales, Telit:

“The global market for pirated goods is worth about $500 billion annually, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). OpticalLock is a leader in providing businesses with the IoT tools necessary to secure their products and supply chains. Telit’s xE910 modules ensure that OpticalLock customers can be confident that they always know the location and status of their high-value assets virtually anywhere in the world.”

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Industry 4.0 and digitalization are still creating news headlines, and the trend is so commonplace that it is now highly adopted by politicians talking about the needs for transformation. But what has really changed on the ground and in the field? What are the use cases for which all these new technologies bring a short payback period and highly positive ROI?

Sewio, a real-time location system vendor, enables companies to digitalize movement in their facilities with indoor tracking. Having a customer base of innovation-driven organizations, Sewio put together an infographic summarizing what the digitalization use cases are that bring real value and competitive advantage. Furthermore, it also shows who is driving the change, which use cases are the most required compared to those that make it to fruition, and the timeline and average time needed to get from an innovative idea to customer success.

The post Leveraging Indoor Location Systems for Digitalization: Expectations vs. Reality (infographic) appeared first on IoT Business News.

• Globalstar satellite IoT devices are tracking and protecting over 30,000 free-roaming horses, including high-value racehorses, across Central Asia

• SmartOne C and SPOT Trace are at the heart of two complementary geo-fencing solutions

• Over 1,000 tracking collars deployed to date across Mongolia and Kazakhstan with expansion into Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other countries underway

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd. today announced that collars based on SmartOne C and SPOT Trace are being deployed in Mongolia and elsewhere in Central Asia to track horses, including high-value competitive racehorses.

Over 30,000 horses are currently being safeguarded by 1,000 satellite-enabled IoT collars in Mongolia with deployments expanding widely into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan while trials are underway in neighbouring territories.

Demand for the latest collar from Mongolia-based Globalstar Value Added Reseller Spotter, built around the small SmartOne C tracker, has been unprecedented, with the number of total deployed Spotter units doubling in the six months since the product’s July 2019 launch.

Horses are part of daily life in Mongolia and horse racing is a major sport nationwide. However, with the sparsely populated nation’s 4.5 million semi-wild horses roaming fence-free, keeping tabs on the animals is a major challenge for owners. In response to market demand, Spotter was established with the aim to devise a tracking solution using Globalstar technology.

The first collar which Spotter developed is based on Globalstar’s SPOT Trace tracker, chosen as it was the most economical and effective technology, and because its small size makes it easy to integrate into an IoT collar. Its ease-of-use, configurability – allowing the owner to choose the frequency of tracking – and fixed price for transmissions were also deciding factors. GPS trackers had shown inadequate reach in tests, and Globalstar was deemed better suited to meet users’ requirements than GSM mobile technology and satellite systems in geostationary orbit (GEO).

While the region’s horses typically do not travel more than 50km from home, they are known to wander hundreds of kilometres to find good grass. They can also get lost in high winds or while fleeing storms, occasionally going missing for months. Some never make it back to their owners, increasing the likelihood of theft.

The SmartOne C-based collar, with its longer battery life, is ideal for tracking far-roaming herds. If the owner receives tracking information six times daily, the system can deliver a full six months of tracking between battery changes.

Spotter’s collars transmit GPS locations over the Globalstar Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network. Both types of collars are tough enough to withstand the daily rigours of horses ranging across challenging terrain, often in extreme weather (-40 degrees Celsius in some areas), as well as the rough-and-tumble of herd life. The horses typically roam in herds of around 30, with one lead stallion keeping the animals together and providing protection. As a result, the group can be effectively monitored with just one collar.

Enkh-Amgalan Ganbaatar, Spotter Co-Founder & CEO, explains the different market segments:

“Requirements differ for tracking racehorses compared with ordinary horses, and depending on the location. Racehorse owners are eager to keep particularly close tabs on their valuable equines, so they appreciate the hourly tracking SPOT Trace enables. Meanwhile owners of family herds and those who use horses for transportation, meat and milk value the extended tracking duration and lower maintenance made possible through SmartOne C’s long battery life.”

One user benefitting from both solutions is NaranBilegt Sanjaajav, Khentii Province, Darkhan soum, who owns eight 30-horse herds as well as successful racers: “The tracking solutions from Spotter have transformed how I manage my horses. To be able to safeguard my racehorses, and to know that I will be able to find my farm horses no matter how far they roam, helps me protect my investment and gives me invaluable peace of mind.”

In very remote areas with very little infrastructure or landmarks, Google Maps is not informative enough to provide owners with the level of detail needed to locate their ranging horses. So, Spotter created an additional service enhancement which sends SMS messages with useful relational information. The owner can set up geo-fencing, for example “Home Zone” or “Water Point 3” and set alerts should the horses travel outside designated areas. The owner receives text messages with details such as “your herd is 1km south of Water Point 3”, saving time and resources by indicating where to search for the animals.

“We have been hugely impressed by the level of innovation from the team at Spotter,” commented Vijay Veerappan, Globalstar Regional Sales Manager for Asia. “Their solutions powerfully demonstrate the flexibility of Globalstar’s communications technologies, as well as our system’s reach and reliability. These satellite IoT solutions are transforming the lives of horse owners across Central Asia by protecting their much-treasured herds.”

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20 million messages sent from FindMy’s animal collars over Globalstar network to date.

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., today announced that FindMy, the IoT animal tracking pioneer, has launched its next-generation tracker.

The FindMy e-Bell Model 2 collar is more robust, smaller and lighter, and now features Bluetooth for easy set-up and a longer-life replaceable battery for lower maintenance.

Today, as FindMy marks its 10-year partnership with Globalstar, and with over 45,000 collars deployed in the field, FindMy collars have transmitted 20 million IoT tracking messages by satellite, enabled by Globalstar’s powerful, low-cost STX3 chipset and its worldwide fleet of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. This data allows farmers to reliably monitor and protect their valuable herds wherever they roam, including regions beyond the reach of mobile phone networks.

The appeal of FindMy is such that it has even attracted customers whose farms are in locations with good mobile coverage – this is due to the price competitiveness of FindMy’s satellite-enabled solution, and the highly functional and user-friendly app and user interface which FindMy provides.

FindMy has spent the last two years designing and engineering the new animal collar, which will be available from Spring 2020. Additional new features include a custom antenna that adds extra assurance of successful message transmission, and a new app that makes it easy for farmers to configure and customise the collar’s transmission settings. The e-Bell Mark 2 is easily self-configurable for farmers and the new industrial-grade FindMy devices are engineered to meet military-level satcoms standards for robustness in all weather conditions.

Enhanced software can now deliver a complete snapshot update of the herd/flock location at particular times of day specified by the farmer dependent on when they head out to the hills to check on the animals. The system also includes an improved accelerometer sensitive enough to detect whether an animal is in distress, such as if it is frightened or being chased.

Norwegian sheep farmer Halvor Mjoen originally founded FindMy in 2009 to support his fellow sheep farmers whose flocks graze fence-free in the mountains and often range across borders into Sweden, Finland as well as Russia. In addition to monitoring sheep, FindMy has also been adopted by reindeer-herders, many with ancestral heritage from the indigenous Sami communities in the far North, whose livestock range across the Arctic Circle. FindMy’s reputation has further grown internationally and the system is now used as far away as on cattle ranches in South America.

“We have learned a lot in the last 10 years, and we have put all that knowledge into our next-generation tracker,” says Mjoen. “We owe our success to listening carefully to our customers, understanding their everyday operations, their pain points and working to deliver what they really need.”

He added: “Our close partnership with Globalstar, with its reliable, functional and cost-effective satellite technology, has played a huge role in our achievements.”

The STX3’s small size, ruggedness, long battery life, and ease of integration, as well as its competitive price, remain key compelling features for FindMy. It makes it possible for farmers to geo-fence livestock, helping them to monitor animals to ensure they graze only in designated areas, and to locate those that have escaped or are injured.

It also enables farmers to optimise their stock, ensure the animals have adequate food and water, while mitigating against disease and predation. FindMy’s data trail empowers farmers to analyse areas of best grazing and they can proactively manage grazing for future seasons.

FindMy’s custom user interface alerts farmers and herd managers when an animal has not moved for some time. With FindMy’s GPS data, they can identify exactly where to go to investigate, saving valuable time and resources. Farmers deploying the collars report a significant reduction in animal loss, with a consequent direct positive impact on their business.

Mark O’Connell, Globalstar EMEA General Manager, said:

“FindMy is a perfect example of design, engineering and industrial creativity, and amply demonstrates how satellite technology and the Internet of Things can be harnessed to powerfully solve real world problems.”

“We congratulate FindMy on its next-generation solution, and we look forward to our continued collaboration to help more farmers improve the welfare of their livestock, and enhance their businesses, across the Nordic region and beyond.”

Highlights:

• Leading IoT animal tracking specialist FindMy launches its next generation solution based on Globalstar satellite technology
• Farmers will benefit from FindMy’s new smaller, lighter, more robust animal collar with longer battery life and enhanced livestock management capability
• In its 10-year partnership with FindMy, Globalstar has enabled the transmission of 20 million FindMy messages with 45,000 collars now protecting sheep, cattle and reindeer

The post FindMy Launches Next Generation Satellite IoT Livestock Tracker Powered by Globalstar appeared first on IoT Business News.

The problem of not hitting those project-sensitive industry deadlines not only affects the health and safety of staff and equipment, but can also cause a major setback to overall productivity and profitability. So, the results VW, ENEL and Budweiser achieved when they implemented a real-time location system to bring higher visibility to their logistics and production ensured that digitalization not only brought increased levels of safety to staff and equipment, but the elimination of bottlenecks also produced better results, and that meant less time wasted and more money in the bank.

The Road to Success

Volkswagen Slovakia’s plant produces five brands of car. So, having full visibility of the status, trajectory and exact location of each of its forklifts means knowing the movement of the fleet in real time and utilizing this to the full to achieve greater efficiency.

In order to gain up-to-date insights into the status of its forklifts and AG, VW Slovakia implemented Sewio’s ultra-wideband real-time location system (RTLS) into one of its 10,000 m2 halls. This means they can now leverage metrics, spaghetti diagrams and heatmaps to check that their vehicles stick to the optimal paths. Using this information, there has been a 10% reduction in overall distance traveled by the fleet through the avoidance of the bottlenecks identified. Through monitoring where forklifts were and were not driven led to a 20% expansion of the warehousing area through optimization of the existing space while avoiding any additional need for construction.

This means VW Slovakia achieved its goal to use digital innovation to achieve greater effectiveness of its industry processes. And by using intricate and accurate virtual modeling of the entire production hall, any proposed operational updates can be simulated first to help avoid any potential pitfalls after going live.

Be Safe, Be Seen

Producing green energy in 30 countries, Enel knows that placing the safety of their staff and equipment is of the highest importance. However, being able to identify the precise number of vehicles and people present at their San Giacomo hydroelectric plant at any given point is not such a straightforward task.

With two kilometers of tunnels and many internal areas, providing a safe environment to work in and easy access for emergency services are not easy. Plus, making sure restricted areas stay strictly out of bounds to unauthorized visitors helps the avoidance of additional unnecessary dangers. Restricted average vehicle speeds of 30 km/h and damp environments meant a micro-area approach had to be adopted to cover all necessary areas and transit zones. Using a combination of RGB cameras and UWB RTLS tags, Enel is able to identify vehicles and people in real time and track their movement, and even count the number of people at the facility who are not wearing tags using the cameras. This has to an 81% reduction in entry to restricted zones and an increase in the speed of access to injured persons by the emergency services.

Let It Beer

It is hard to think of the production of quality beer without the Czech Republic springing to mind. World-famous Czech Budweiser’s brewery produces 360 varieties of beer on 20,000 pallets in two sizes. These leave the plant daily on 50 lorries to 76 countries across the globe. As you can imagine, running an operation of such a scale and complexity can lead to costly human errors. But by introducing a real-time positioning system, it not only helped eliminate this, but brought the additional bonus of low maintenance costs.

15 forklifts were fitted with ultra-wideband (UWB) tags and 70 receivers (anchors) were installed. This means warehouse operators at Budweiser’s 15,000 m2 facility can pinpoint in real time the precise location of the 20,000 pallets–with an accuracy of 30 cm. This means they are able to ensure the right pallet is with the correct driver, and inform and redirect drivers should the pallets go astray. As a result of implanting Sewio’s UWB-powered RTLS, warehouse utilization has risen by 19% and system uptime is 24% higher (at 99%). It has also given logistics managers visibility of every forklift, its location, distance traveled and metrics for daily attendance.

Save Time, Make Money

The increased overview digitalization brings to your staff, premises and assets means optimizing your processes to the full. Better streamlining, improved personnel safety and the pinpoint precision of the positioning system mean reducing the amount you are paying in terms of time, manpower and money. Using digitalization, not only are you optimizing every aspect of your processes but you are also reaping some serious rewards.

The post For VW, ENEL and Budweiser, Using Indoor Tracking Means More Productivity and Greater Profits appeared first on IoT Business News.

Developed by Finnish startup, Anicare, the Anicare Healtag tracker is attached to an animal’s earflap and can autonomously measure different vital functions for up to five years. Data is sent via cellular direct to the Cloud for immediate access via a smartphone app so that injured or ill animals in the wild can be automatically identified for rescue and treatment.

Nordic Semiconductor today announces that its nRF9160 System-in-Package (SiP) LTE-M/NB-IoT cellular IoT module is being employed in an IoT-enabled herding livestock management solution developed by Finnish startup, Anicare, called the Anicare ‘Healtag’.

Anicare Healtag is designed to insure farmers of commercially-bred reindeer and other herding animals against the financial loss and livestock welfare issues associated with undetected illness or injury of herding animals that spend most of the year roaming in the wild.

Around 600,000 reindeer are reared in Lapland and Scandinavia each year where reindeer meat-which is worth around €1,000-1,500 per reindeer-is extremely popular with demand from other parts of the world also growing. And in Anicare’s home country of Finland, for example, if a reindeer-farmer can prove one of its herd was killed by a wild predator such as a wolf or bear, the Finnish government will compensate that farmer financially for that loss.

Anicare says Healtag is also a significant improvement over existing herding animal trackers that are so large they have to be hung from the animal’s neck, and consume so much power that their batteries have to be replaced every year which is not only expensive and time consuming for the farmer, but also highly stressful for the animal.

In contrast, by employing a highly-miniaturized, low-power Nordic nRF9160 SiP, the 25g, 35 x 22 x 23-mm Anicare Healtag is small and light enough to be attached to an animal’s earflap like a traditional livestock ear tag, and offers a maintenance-free battery lifetime of up to five years which means the tag only needs to be attached once to the animal during its lifetime.

In operation, the Anicare Healtag autonomously measures a herding animal’s activity (using an accelerometer) and heat (using a thermal sensor) once every hour, and uses the latest NB-IoT cellular wireless technology to report of any significant changes that would tend to indicate either illness, injury, or predator attack. This includes using the Nordic nRF9160 SiP’s built-in GPS functionality to send the exact location of a distressed animal to its owner immediately, enabling rapid rescue and treatment.

And Anicare says that in terms of coverage, the latest NB-IoT cellular wireless technology deployed throughout Northern Europe ensures cellular data communication remains possible even in areas with no 2G cellphone coverage.

Aki Marttila, CEO of Anicare, comments:

“The all-in-one module integration of the nRF9160 SiP meant we didn’t have to worry about having separate application processor, antenna, GPS, and NB-IoT circuits that would have required a lot of supporting components and thus PCB space. And because the nRF9160 comes module-certified for cellular networks globally we didn’t have to worry about gaining any regulatory approvals either.”

In fact at just 10 x 16 x 1mm in size, the nRF9160 includes everything a cellular connection and IoT application needs beyond requiring just an external battery, SIM, and antenna. To achieve this ultra-high integration Nordic partnered with Qorvoto make a ‘System-in-Package’ (SiP) that more closely resembles an integrated chip than a module. The SiP includes a powerful application processor (Arm Cortex M-33), standard microcontroller peripherals, and enough chip-integrated memory to execute IoT applications with edge computing.Yet this is not achieved by sacrificing on-air performance: the nRF91 is capable of delivering class-leading output power (+23 dBm) and sensitivity – vital for its GPS support.

“The commercial challenge for herding livestock farmers is that they have to manage hundreds or thousands of animals and the loss of even a few of these animals can significantly reduce or even eliminate already slim profit margins,” comments Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor’s Director of Sales & Marketing. “This makes IoT-enabled herding livestock management solutions particularly attractive to them as a way to protect profits and minimize any illness or injury-induced suffering of their animals.”

The Anicare Healtag will be commercially available from September this year.

The post Cellular IoT ear tag tracks health and location of farmed reindeer and other herding animals appeared first on IoT Business News.

Sequans Communications S.A. and IoT intelligent services provider Connected Holdings today announced the availability of the Arrow M vehicle-tracking unit, designed for the transportation industry.

The Arrow M is powered by Sequans’ Monarch Platform, the industry’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip for IoT applications. Sequans and Connected Holdings have been collaborating closely on the development, testing, and integration of Monarch into the new Arrow M, which is now available to trucking and freight companies across the United States.

Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:

“Arrow M is a powerful solution and it is one of the very first available production-ready transportation tracking solutions with LTE-M connectivity inside.”

“Utilizing the ultra-low power consumption of Sequans Monarch LTE-M solution means Arrow M enabled products do not have to be connected to power and can be placed anywhere on a container or chassis, offering new flexibility and freedom to supply chain managers.”

“Sequans’ Monarch technology allows the new Arrow M enabled product family to run for multiple years on an embedded battery,” said Eric Collins, Connected Holdings CEO. “Also, Monarch’s support for a +23 dBm power amplifier, which allows it to reach MCL (maximum coupling loss) of 164 dB, ensures reliable, cost-effective service all across the USA, even when the Arrow M enabled solution is placed deep inside a trailer or container. Sequans is a leader in LTE for IoT and Monarch provides the technical advantages and simplicity we wanted in Arrow M.”

Arrow M solutions use an ultra-reliable LTE-enabled sensor package designed for monitoring and tracking of trailers and containers, vehicle recovery, trailer management, lot management and other asset utilization applications. They require no programming skills to use and come with easy-to-use software for configuration and reporting. Reports can be created periodically or in response to events, such as motion, speed, harsh acceleration or braking, geo-fence violations, temperature, altitude, and much more.

Arrow M is powered by Sequans’ Monarch Platform, the world’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip. The Monarch LTE Platform provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed IoT applications. It supports transmit power of 23 dBm and provides the enhanced coverage needed for deep-indoor and/or remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, all integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. In addition, the chip supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a Single-SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling rock bottom low power consumption of 1 micro amp for battery life of at least 3 years. Sequans’ Monarch is certified by leading operators in the USA.

The post Connected Holdings Introduces LTE-M Telematics Device Powered by Sequans appeared first on IoT Business News.

Using the u-track and C030-R410M toolset, product designers can have a working prototype of their application up and running in no time.

u-blox, today introduced the toolset comprising the u-track software and the C030-R410M application board.

The toolset is a rapid-prototyping platform that lets product designers test and optimize the position accuracy and power consumption of wireless location tracking applications that use LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular networks, as well as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology. The toolset targets product engineers working on battery powered applications such as sport, people and asset trackers.

An increasing number of battery powered consumer and industrial products feature integrated GNSS receivers. These products include virtual reality headsets, smart watches, and devices to track elderly people, containers or parcels. With the ongoing roll-out of low power wide area cellular networks (LPWAN) such as LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies around the world and the extremely low power consumption they enable, the range of use cases for wireless location trackers is expected to expand further.

“With today’s technology, product designers can now include optimized battery life in their applications,” says Florian Bousquet, Product Manager, Product Center Positioning, at u-blox.
“We developed this toolset to give customers a quick and easy way to test the accuracy and the power consumption of their product ideas using the latest generation of our technology,” he says. “In many cases, they can replicate their applications and start testing the performance of different device configurations in under 15 minutes.”

He adds:

“The toolset offers access to the very latest technologies, from LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular communication to our proprietary Super-E mode that delivers the best balance between power consumption and GNSS positioning performance.”

The u-track software runs from embedded firmware on the new u-blox C030-R410M application board. The board, specifically designed to rapidly prototype applications for the Internet of Things (IoT), includes an ultra-small, low power u-blox ZOE-M8B GNSS receiver and a size-optimized SARA-R410M LTE-M/NB-IoT cellular communication module.

Additionally, u-track includes a PC software application. Its user-friendly dashboard lets users log, retrieve, and visualize power consumption, accuracy, and other important values, such as the time it takes the GNSS receiver to calculate a position (Time-To-First-Fix, TTFF).

The post u-blox Accelerates the Development of Low Power Location Trackers With u-track Toolset appeared first on IoT Business News.

Demonstrating the flexibility of LoRa® technology to bring the benefits of the Internet of Things to virtually any outdoor setting, Kerlink and Tech4Race, an innovative sports-event tracking company, have deployed a LoRaWAN™ network at an endurance-riding event in the Abu Dhabi desert: Al Ain Endurance Cup.

The customized small private network is a ground-based geolocation system that includes Kerlink Wirnet™ stations for access to a LoRa® IoT network, LoRa-enabled trackers developed by Tech4Race and worn by contestants, and a web interface that allows event organizers to track them through the course. The web interface also allows spectators to follow the race on their smartphones, including the location and status of specific runners.

LoRa® technology, which operates on unlicensed ISM bands, makes these services possible, securely and without data interference from other networks. In addition, the narrowband technology optimizes small data-rate transmissions, which typically extend battery life of devices for five to ten years.

With the Tech4Race system, event organizers simultaneously achieve different complementary objectives:

• Precise positioning enabled by the device assures that participants stay on the official route.
• Volunteers and medical and security teams can be coordinated to intervene in case of an emergency and to ensure the quality of the event.
• Spectators can follow participants’ progress in real time and won’t miss a checkpoint or convenient opportunity to encourage their favourite athletes.

“The innovation of Tech4Race’s solution, which can be installed at competitive events ranging from golf tournaments, riding and running events and swim meets in virtually any location, is exemplified by the miniaturization of the trackers, the flexible business model that enables small private networks designed for unique events and the overall solution reliability,” said Stéphane Dejean, Kerlink’s CMO.

Fabien Letort, Tech4Race cofounder and head of product & service development, said:

“In deployments where a GSM-based solution could be limited by white zones and network interference, the LoRa-based tracking system offers superior robustness and reliability.”

“Kerlink helps us deliver this service by providing an agile, easy-to-deploy and to use architecture that fits perfectly with our need for quick-and-easy integration.”

The post Kerlink and Tech4Race Demonstrate LoRa-System Flexibility With IoT Network at Endurance Riding Event in the Desert appeared first on IoT Business News.

LTE for IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Korean telecommunications device maker, Aprotech, has adopted its Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT chip technology to develop new LTE IoT devices for worldwide markets, beginning first with Korea.

The first device to come to market under the Sequans/Aprotech agreement will be an IoT kids and pets tracker that Aprotech is designing for operators in Asia. For this, Aprotech is using Sequans’ CLOE (connecting and locating objects everywhere) IoT tracker platform, which integrates Sequans’ Monarch technology with the GNSS technology of STMicroelectronics, for best-in-class location accuracy.

YongNam Jung, CEO, Aprotech, said:

“Sequans is the leader in LTE for IoT technology and we selected Sequans because of the best-in-class power consumption they’ve demonstrated in both the Monarch chip and the CLOE platform.”

“We were also impressed with Sequans’ worldwide single SKU capability and their success in getting Monarch certified with leading operators worldwide—this is very important to our global deployment strategy.”

“Aprotech has quickly become a valued supplier to leading companies in Asia, and we are excited that new Aprotech IoT devices based on Sequans’ Monarch are coming to market,” said Danny Kedar, VP of Sequans IoT Business Unit. “We are sure that our Monarch, the most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip in the world with Single-SKU, worldwide deployment capability, will help Aprotech deliver new devices quickly in Korea and Japan and other parts of the world.”

Sequans’ Monarch LTE Cat M1/NB1 Platform is the world’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip. It provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. Monarch also supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a Single-SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling rock bottom low power consumption of 1 micro amp for long battery life.

CLOE is a turnkey IoT tracker solution for OEMs and ODMs. CLOE integrates LTE with GNSS, a power management unit (PMU), memories and a microcontroller in a very small 30 x 40 mm package. CLOE is intelligently engineered to address multiple tracking applications with best-in-class battery life, location accuracy, reachability, mobility, and reporting periodicity. Designed with separated GNSS, LTE-M, and application domain power systems, CLOE allows its GNSS subsystem to continue to track while other domains are shut down, allowing rock-bottom power consumption.

The post Aprotech of Korea Adopts Sequans’ Monarch Technology for LTE IoT Devices appeared first on IoT Business News.

The police in Korea plan to give Lineable’s Silver, a wearable Internet of Things (IoT) device, for free to actively locate Alzheimer patients.

Semtech Corporation announced that Lineable, a Seoul-based startup manufacturer of GPS trackers, has integrated LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) in its new wearable safety device, Silver.

Lineable’s Silver device, co-developed by the National Police Agency of Korea, SK Telecom and SK Hynix, is specifically designed for patients with Alzheimer’s. Through a hybrid GPS system, caregivers are notified when patients leave the house or out of the designated safe zone.

Many patients are not constantly monitored by a supervisor, and in Korea, about 10,000 Alzheimer patients go missing each year. Silver is currently being used by the police in Korea and the police plan to distribute 3,000 devices each year to Alzheimer patients, free of charge. During its first month of service in October 2017, the Silver device helped save six patients and in three months, it helped save 20 more patients.

“The Lineable LoRa-based device provides a universal solution for tracking Alzheimer patients at a low cost due to its low battery consumption and wide network coverage,” said Harris Shim, Head of Business Operations at Lineable.

“SK Telecom has created the first nationwide LoRaWAN network and Lineable is one of the first companies to develop a solution that leverages Semtech’s LoRa Technology to track people’s location.”

“Lineable’s Silver wearable technology has already seen early success in Korea by being able to locate Alzheimer patients in real-time,” said Vivek Mohan, Director of Wireless and Sensing Products Group at Semtech. “The LoRa-based device is able help the community and its police force by providing a technology that gives families peace of mind.”

The post Semtech’s LoRa Technology Help Saves Alzheimer Patients in Real-Time appeared first on IoT Business News.

Collaboration Helps Power Connected Business Models with Location-Aware IoT Solutions.

EPAM Systems Inc., a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, and HERE Technologies, the Open Location Platform company, announced a new collaboration focused on creating and delivering innovative asset tracking solutions to the transportation, logistics, distribution and fleet management industries.

The combination of HERE location technology for high-accuracy end-to-end tracking of goods, services and content and EPAM’s comprehensive IoT capabilities, including development of a full range of connected devices to infrastructure and integration capabilities, will help customers create broad new enterprise business models, as well as drive new efficiencies across their organizations.

“As we continue to evolve our IoT services practice to include a broad range of vertical and horizontal use cases, partnerships with industry leaders like HERE allow us to deliver powerful, context-aware and personalized solutions to enterprises and users alike,” said Eli Feldman, CTO, Advanced Technology, EPAM.

“HERE Tracking capabilities are logically extensible beyond transportation use cases and can cover a range of in-demand capabilities in our key verticals, including retail, media and entertainment and life sciences, in the future.”

EPAM intends to build a comprehensive digital platform for transportation, asset and fleet management companies utilizing HERE Tracking as an integrated value-added capability. HERE Tracking is a powerful cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) for low-energy, high-accuracy and real-time tracking of goods and devices both indoors and outdoors.

HERE Tracking, built on the HERE Open Location Platform, will give EPAM and HERE the ability to offer customers a comprehensive set of location and tracking services, including:

• industry-grade maps for indoor venues and outdoor environments with geo-coding capabilities;
• highly accurate, energy-efficient indoor-outdoor positioning technology with offline capabilities that enables conventional tracking devices to work longer due to superior battery management;
• tracking and geo-fencing APIs; and
• analytics API and visualization tools.

“Commerce today is conducted at global scale, where supply chains and marketplaces transcend geography. At the same time, businesses can no longer afford operational inefficiencies as consumers expect goods and services to be delivered with unprecedented speed and reliability,” said, Leon van de Pas, SVP Internet of Things at HERE Technologies. “The combination of HERE Tracking and EPAM’s ability to quickly engineer and deliver IoT software is a powerful solution for any business to fundamentally increase its operational efficiency.”

The post EPAM and HERE Technologies Partner to Accelerate IOT Tracking Solutions appeared first on IoT Business News.

Berg Insight, the world’s leading M2M/IoT market research provider, today released new findings about the market for Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders.

The number of participants in Electronic Monitoring programmes on a daily basis in Europe and North America amounted to about 180,000 in 2016.

The aim of EM programmes is to increase offender accountability, reduce recidivism rates and enhance public safety by providing an additional tool to traditional methods of community supervision. Even though EM has been in use for more than a decade in most countries, it remains relatively rare in the context of European and North American corrections systems.

The market value for EM including equipment, software and outsourced services in Europe was € 161 million in 2016. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 percent, this number is expected to reach € 305 million by 2021. The North American market for EM is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent from US$ 535 million in 2016 to US$ 851 million in 2021. The use of GPS technology has grown rapidly on the North American market in recent years and GPS-based devices now account for more than 70 percent of the active units.

In Europe, the most common forms of EM equipment are RF systems used in home detention curfew schemes. The use of GPS systems is however gaining ground in jurisdictions throughout Europe. The newly launched pilot scheme in England and Wales signals a way forward for European EM programmes, which are largely influenced by one another. Berg Insight is of the opinion that the market for EM equipment and services is in a growth phase which will continue throughout the forecast period. Increased use of EM will be mainly driven by further adoption in pre-trial and parole supervision as well as sex offender legislation.

The largest EM programmes in Europe are operated by consortiums of companies. Leading EM equipment providers on the European market include G4S and 3M Electronic Monitoring, where the latter also holds a significant market share in North America. The wholly-owned GEO Group subsidiary BI Incorporated is the largest provider of EM equipment and services on the North American market. Additional companies with notable market shares in North America include Satellite Tracking of People (part of Securus Technologies) and Numerex.

Fredrik Stålbrand, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight, said:

“The declining cost of hardware components and cellular connectivity has driven the adoption of GPS-based systems on the North American market in recent years.”

He adds that software is likely to play an increasingly important role in determining the winners in this market. “Vendors are increasingly focusing on analytics software development to offer support tools for officers that are faced with a growing amount of location data that is generated by the expanding installed base of GPS-based systems”, concluded Mr. Stålbrand.

The post The electronic offender monitoring market in Europe and North America reached € 648 million in 2016 appeared first on IoT Business News.

Sierra Wireless and PrecisionHawk will demonstrate the LTE-enabled LATAS Platform at Mobile World Congress 2017.

Sierra Wireless today announced that PrecisionHawk has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime® MC Series embedded modules to enable global LTE connectivity for its Low Altitude Traffic and Airspace Safety (LATAS) platform, which enables safe drone operation on a broad scale.

A May 2016 PwC report, Clarity from Above, projects the global commercial drone market to grow to more than $127 billion by 2020.

LATAS is the only platform to link drones, 3D ground data and live manned aircraft data from the Federal Aviation Administration and global authorities into a single system that tells commercial or hobbyist drone operators when and where it’s safe to fly. Sierra Wireless AirPrime MC7354 modules are currently installed in drones operating in Australia and New Zealand, providing critical real-time connectivity to locate drones and pinpoint their positions at all times, and send notifications to users about in-flight hazards, such as nearby aircraft and airspace restrictions.

Operating over worldwide cellular networks and satellites, the LATAS platform connects leading airspace management technologies, such as sense and avoid, geofencing and aircraft tracking, into a service package for commercial and recreational drone operators, as well as regulators and air traffic controllers. LATAS allows users to request, track and verify all flight operations from a central location and automatically report flight paths back to aviation authorities.

Tyler Collins, VP Airspace at PrecisionHawk, said:

“As tens of thousands of new operators join the drone space around the world, our goal is to provide an easy to use and reliable safety tool that gives drone operators a complete picture of their surroundings and how those surroundings are changing in real-time.”

“This wouldn’t be possible without the cutting edge innovation in cellular connectivity that Sierra Wireless provides.”

Current radar technologies and ADS-b reporting systems are unable to locate and track drones due to their small size and the low altitudes at which they fly. This makes it difficult for traffic controllers to manage commercial and hobbyist drone operations while maintaining safe and effective separation with the existing infrastructure of ground and air obstacles. The LATAS platform can be installed plug and play or integrated into drone circuit systems during manufacturing.

“We’re proud to be supplying the first cellular modules flying on drones to make the skies safer,” said Dan Schieler, Senior Vice President and General Manager, OEM Solutions, Sierra Wireless. “With near-ubiquitous coverage, cellular connectivity is key to innovative applications like PrecisionHawk’s LATAS being able to scale across the globe.”

The post Sierra Wireless selected by PrecisionHawk to enable drone safety and traffic management appeared first on IoT Business News.

GoFree Track and GoFree Vessel marine electronics relies on Vodafone IoT for connectivity and tracking services for customers.

Vodafone today announced that it is working with Navico, an international marine electronics company, to bring global connectivity to Navico’s GoFree product suite.

Using the Vodafone Global Internet of Things (IoT) SIM, GoFree can provide boaters, fleet managers, and service technicians with the ability to monitor, log, transmit and report important vessel information in real-time.

With the connectivity, GoFree Track, an affordable hardware system, can track critical vessel information like engine hours, battery status, oil pressure, coolant temperature, fuel consumption, and more. By tracking these on-board assets, boaters can instantly access details of potential mechanical problems and share them with technicians to service the specific area in need. Vodafone’s IoT technology allows GoFree Track to monitor bilge levels and alarms Letting boaters know if the vessel is taking on water and allowing them to react accordingly as well as notifying them when there is loss of shore power, which can drain batteries and potentially damage onboard systems that are running.

All data collected is transmitted back to the GoFree Vessel online module for immediate viewing, giving consumers better access and control over vessel details. GoFree Vessel allows users to play back different boating trips to share with friends or service partners.

Leif Ottosson, CEO, Navico, said:

“Whether you’re a recreational boater or a corporate fleet manager, our GoFree Track and GoFree Vessel solutions take remote vessel monitoring to a new level. To bring our consumers the latest in marine telematics, we wanted to provide connectivity no matter where in the world their vessel takes them, which required a true, global service.”

Vodafone’s global network and the Vodafone Global IoT SIM connects GoFree Track and GoFree Vessel across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions making it easier to offer these connected products to all types of marine vessels including local boats or cargo ships traveling internationally.

Vodafone Head of IoT Ivo Rook said:
“Marine electronics are an example of how IoT technologies are transforming industries by bringing connectivity to places not previously reachable. These Navico technologies, connected by Vodafone IoT, bring new possibilities to boaters across the world and provide them in-depth information into their vessels.”

GoFree Track is offered with a variety of communication options including the Track-WiFi or Track-CellFi, which leverages Vodafone’s Global SIM to connect users to 2G or 3G networks throughout the world.

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Position Logic Provides Location-Based Technology and Named North America Distributor of GTX’s SmartSoles for Tracking and Recovery.

KORE, the people powering IoT innovations and opportunities, today announced that the company will integrate GTX Corp’s, GPS SmartSole® into the Position Logic platform. Additionally, Position Logic will be a distributor of GPS SmartSoles in North America.

GPS SmartSole combines a miniaturized GPS device and cellular communicator to send coordinates of loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism or any other cognitive memory disorder to their caregivers. GPS SmartSoles look and feel like regular insoles, and allow the wearer to be free from the stigma of visible bracelets, pendants and other traditional tracking devices. GPS SmartSole technology is integrated with a mobile app that allows caregivers to track their loved ones in seconds, lessening their worry and anxiety about wandering.

Per the agreement, Position Logic customers will now be able to purchase GPS SmartSoles as a hardware on the Position Logic platform and then offer it to end-users in the personal tracking space.

“Currently there are 100 million people worldwide who are part of this at risk wandering group, including patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism and traumatic brain injury, and that number is expected to reach 277 million by 2050. We’re happy to be working with Position Logic on this integration/distribution agreement and are eager to see the results we know they can drive in North America to help this population,” said Tom Adams, VP Sales Strategy.

Felix Lluberes, executive vice president, advanced applications, KORE, said:
“Position Logic is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to support and deliver greater value to our service providers.”

“With the integration of the SmartSole device in our device library, our service providers can differentiate themselves and offer additional personal monitoring and tracking services. The SmartSole hardware unique form factor presents several advantages especially around people prone to wandering or getting lost.”

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KIWI PLUS, one of Korea’s leading companies in software development, has launched a new children’s smartwatch developed in collaboration with u-blox, a global leader in wireless and positioning modules and chips.

LINE Kids Watch is a tiny and colorful wearable with LINE emojis functioning as an Android-based smartwatch and officially distributed by KT Corporation. It enables precise tracking of the whereabouts of children, while also offering educational and interactive content.

LINE Kids Watch uses KIWI PLUS’ own IoT platform for wearables, KIWI Edge. Designed with a simple LCD screen for one-touch calling, it also provides real-time accurate location tracking and convenient safety zone setting. An emergency notification can easily be initiated by the child and text messages are sent by speaking into a microphone. Other features include an education quiz and a Cashbee NFC money pocket function.

“We wanted to offer accurate tracking combined with high quality cellular communication, and u-blox has already demonstrated with leading brands of children’s watches its unique combination of GNSS positioning and wireless communication technologies. And considering the small size, low power consumption and powerful location accuracy of its products as well as the speed with which they helped us solved issues, u‑blox was the right choice,” explains Sangwon Seo, CEO of KIWI PLUS.

The u-blox cellular module SARA-U270 and u-blox 7 GNSS chip UBX-G7020-KT are embedded in the smartwatch. The SARA-U270 UMTS/HSPA module provides efficient and cost-effective high-speed mobile connectivity in an ultra-small LGA form factor. The high performance UBX-G7020 multi-GNSS chip supports GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS and delivers exceptional sensitivity and acquisition times. It has ultra low power consumption and a remarkably very small solution footprint of only 30 mm2.

“It was very exciting to collaborate with KIWI PLUS, as we at u-blox are committed to support our customers by combining technologies for reliable solutions,” explains Shone Kim, Country Manager of u-blox Korea. “We foresee further collaboration with KIWI PLUS in the future, using our LTE technology.”

Wearables are small portable devices that support our daily life, and deliver on-the-spot services thanks to their wireless connectivity and positioning capability. Low power technologies offer a long battery life, and with outstanding radio capabilities, a robust user experience. The market for this type of high technology integration is growing strongly, so price levels are quickly becoming competitive.

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