The acronym RTLS stands for the real-time locating system. RTLS is often referred to as RTLS systems, which is incorrect, but convenient.
Although not limited to indoor positioning systems (IPS), when talking about RTLS, it is usually the various types of indoor positioning systems that are meant. Sometimes, they are also called local positioning systems (LPS).
Although not limited to indoor positioning systems (IPS), when talking about RTLS, it is usually the various types of indoor positioning systems that are meant. Sometimes, they are also called local positioning systems (LPS).
GPS is also an RTLS system, but GPS belongs to global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) along with GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou.
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. Just as BLE, WiFi, LoRa, and ZigBee, which are not designed for positioning systems, can still be used for this localization and navigation, and RFID is not a positioning system but, with a particular stretch, can still be used for this purposes.
Of course, the stretch is serious. You don’t know the location of your mobile object, your mobile beacon, or your tag. You know whether the tag was registered within 0.1-1m from an RFID reader. Typically, 0.05-0.1m and only for some special readers – within 1m. But you don’t even know the distance. You only know yes or no. You don’t have the XYZ coordinates of your mobile beacon. You have only XYZ of your RFID reader.
Since we focus on industrial applications, we do not touch in the article on other areas, for example, retail, healthcare, hospitality, agriculture, security, etc. There are very many areas where RTLSs are used.
Typically, when talking about RTLS, one talks about mobile assets: forklifts, vehicles, people, robots, AGVs, and drones. Much less about palettes.
Palettes are semi-mobile. Yes, they are moved, but they don’t move. Palettes are on the borderline between RTLS and RFID or some other identification methods, for example, QR/bar code identification with the help of mobile robots, drones, or people.
One of the significant problems in warehousing is misplaced palettes. But employing RTLS for that is a bit of an overshoot because:
In general, usage in manufacturing is pretty close to warehousing and intra-logistics because they more or less have the same tasks and applications. Manufacturing has more variety:
The answer to the question of what real-time locating systems are good will depend on what you are looking for: accuracy, low latency, price, range, easiness of deploys, easiness to operate
Price of the system, price of the mobile beacon (tag), price of the stationary beacons and supporting infrastructure, installation costs, maintenance costs – many factors. Ultimately, it depends on the exact configuration, requirements, specs, etc.
– Global: GPS/GNSS
– 10-1000km: Cellular networks
– 10-50km: RTK GPS
– 100-500m: Marvelmind Indoor “GPS” with multiple submaps, UWB, BLE
– up to 50m per submap: Marvelmind Indoor “GPS”, UWB
– up to 10-30m per submap: BLE
RTLS tags or RTLS mobile beacons are wireless devices placed on mobile objects to track their location inside the coverage area of RTLS (for example, building, warehouse, factory, hospital, etc.). You don’t track a person – you track their RTLS tag/mobile beacon. You don’t track a forklift – you track its RTLS tag.
An RFID tag can be considered an RTLS tag but a very primitive and rudimentary one. Typically, RTLS systems provide 2D (XY) or 3D (XYZ) coordinates of the RTLS tags. At the same time, the RFID tags provide gate-level coordinates only. An RFID system doesn’t give real-time coordinates of an RFID tag until the tag is placed on the RFID reader, or the RFID tag shall pass through an RFID portal. Therefore, calling the RFID system a real-time locating system is a big stretch.
Study more about different types of RTLS and RTLS technologies:
If anything is unclear, contact us via info@marvelmind.com