The Starter Set Super-MP-3D is designed for precise indoor positioning and navigation system. It can be used for autonomous navigation of mobile robots, vehicles and drones; for industrial applications, for example, forklifts or people tracking in a warehouse for safety and productivity. The set is particularly good for production automation, warehouse automation, safety and productivity for people and vehicle tracking; building geo-fencing zone and tracking inside them.

The starter set is a multi-purpose (MP) set based on Super-Beacons. Particular focus of the set is on accuracy of positioning. The set can provide typical accuracy of ±2cm even before additional sensor fusion or filtering. This level of accuracy is about 10 times higher than what ultra-wide band (UWB) provides and about 100 times higher than it can be provided by BLE (iBeacon) based systems.

Starter Set Super-MP is the most versatile (see supported architectures below) and the easiest to set up and deploy (no need for manual distances measurement or calibration) set available today (Feb. 2022).

By default, the Starter Set Super-MP-3D supports NIA and IA (https://marvelmind.com/pics/architectures_comparison.pdf):

• 1D – up to 4 mobile beacons
• 2D – up to 4 submaps, including fully overlapping submaps and 2N beacon redundancy for optimal tracking
• 3D – up to 1 submap with N+1 beacon redundancy

With additional licenses Starter Set Super-MP-3D can support:

• Multi-Frequency (MF) NIA in 3D with N+1 beacon redundancy
• Multi-Frequency (MF) NIA in 2D with N+1 beacon redundancy
• MMSW0004: MF NIA support

  Content:

• 4 x Stationary Super-Beacons ( with different ultrasound frequencies)
• 1 x Mobile Super-Beacon (identical to the stationary Super-Beacons, but, typically, on another ultrasound frequency)
• 1 x Modem HW v5.1 supporting up to 250 beacons

Notice that in order to support IA and MF NIA (see more about different architectures), stationary Super-Beacons must be on different frequencies. Typically, we supply 5 different frequencies. Sometimes – 4 different frequencies, when there is a shortage of one or more frequencies. Even 4 different frequencies do not limit users in any way, because one of the Super-Beacons must be mobile. In this case, it doesn’t matter what transducers it has – on which frequency – because it will be receiving the ultrasound. And Super-Beacons can receive any frequency, because the frequency is chosen based on the digital filter. But the transmitting frequency is defined by the properties of the transducer and cannot be changed.

We equip the sets with beacons with different frequencies from the list of available ones: 19kHz, 22kHz, 25kHz, 28kHz, 31kHz, 34kHz, 37kHz, 45kHz. Unless you specifically request some frequencies, we will select them based on our preferences.

All beacons (stationary and mobile) are equipped with with 6D IMU (3D accelerometer + 3D gyroscope) and standard 50mm antennas. Effectively, you are getting 5 similar Super-Beacons albeit on different ultrasonic frequencies and a modem. The HW of the system supports two bands:

1. License-free ISM band (915 MHz) for the US and countries in Region 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU_Region)
2. License-free SRD band (868 MHz) for the EU and other countries: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-range_device#SRD860)

We always recommend to check your country’s local regulations.

The Multi-Frequency NIA allows having up to 8 times update rate increase for multiple mobile beacons without location update rate reduction inherent to regular NIA with multiple mobile beacon (“hedges”) – 8 different ultrasound frequencies are available totally. Check more about different architectures: Architectures comparison.

All essential SW as well as Marvelmind Dashboard API are already included in the price. Just download the Marvelmind SW pack: https://marvelmind.com/download/ => https://marvelmind.com/pics/marvelmind_SW.zip.

Super-Beacons are a newer version of Beacons HW v4.9 and superior to them in nearly all aspects:

• Super-Beacons have sharp DSP filters (the same valid for Mini-RXs or Industrial-RXs). The Super-Beacons are more sensitive and more interference resistant than Beacons HW v4.9 that rely on analogue filters
• Super-Beacons have improved TX part and power-saving features that allows up to 10x battery lifetime improvement over Beacons HW v4.9 (depending on the settings and update rate)
• Super-Beacons as well as Mini-RX and Industrial-RX use a single wide-beam microphone for receiving ultrasound, thus making submaps in complex conditions (larger distances, for example, or noisy environment) much easier to build, than that with Beacons HW v4.9, because the microphone is always on and it has a wide reception diagram. Whereas, with Beacons HW v4.9 in those challenging conditions, one would need to turn off some sensors and, generally speaking, take care about the number of sensors (RX1-RX5) turned on in order to provide proper coverage, on the one hand, and to maintain the right sensitivity on the other
• All Super-Beacons have 6D IMU (3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope)

Super-Beacons are better than Mini-RXs and Mini-TXs as well:

• Super-Beacons are dual-use: they can both receive and transmit ultrasound. You can absolutely freely use them as stationary and as mobile
• Super-Beacons have external pins (UART, SPI, reset, etc.)
• Super-Beacons have external antenna for longer radio range and larger maps
• Super-Beacons have internal batteries with higher capacity
  

 Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System is off-the-shelf indoor navigation system designed to provide precise (±2cm) location data to autonomous robots, vehicles (AGV), and copters. It can also be used to track other objects with a mobile beacon installed on them, for example, forklifts in warehouses or virtual reality (VR) helmets or helmets for construction workers or miners, etc.

The navigation system is based on stationary ultrasonic beacons united by radio interface in a license-free band (915/868 MHz ). The location of a mobile beacon is calculated based on the propagation delay of an ultrasonic signal (Time-Of-Flight or TOF) to a set of stationary ultrasonic beacons using trilateration.

No manual calibration is required. No need to know exact locations of the beacons – the system builds the map of beacons automatically.

The set contains beacons with IMU and that gives a possibility for ultrasonic + IMU (3D accelerometer + 3D gyro) sensor fusion. That allows much faster update rate – up to 100Hz and above.

The key requirements for the proper system functionality:

• For 3D (X, Y, Z) tracking – An unobstructed sight by a mobile beacon of three or more stationary beacons simultaneously within 30 meters
  
• For 2D (X, Y) tracking – An unobstructed sight by a mobile beacon of two stationary or more stationary beacons simultaneously within 30 meters
  
• In ideal (noiseless) conditions and with lower frequencies, the maximum distance can be up to 50 meters – not recommended, but possible
  
• All Super-Beacons have 6D IMU onboard
• See more about the line of sight requirement