NIA vs IA vs MF NIA Architecture Guide | Marvelmind

0:01 Hello colleagues. We will continue now with basics. We just realized one more time that people don't read our manuals, so we will guide you guys a bit more carefully and let's say deeper. Today we will discuss MF NIA, NIA, and IA. So what are those? It's Multi-Frequency Non-Inverse Architecture, Inverse Architecture, IA, and Non-Inverse Architecture. What are they? What the differences are and which one to choose? Now your main page is this one, so you go to Downloads and then you choose the Architecture Comparison.

0:59 So in Architecture Comparison you see Non-Inverse Architecture, Inverse Architecture, and Multi-Frequency Non-Inverse Architecture. They are placed like this because historically they were developed like this: first one was this, then this, and then this. There is a short summary you can read them, but basically the whole video is about their comparison between these three architectures and in which cases which to choose. Now let's start with the most basic, and this is why when you are not sure we always recommend start with Non-Inverse Architecture. Why? Because with Non-Inverse Architecture you have the least number of possibilities to make a mistake. It stems from the fact that this is the simplest architecture. How it is arranged? Now like in any of our indoor GPS systems, there are three

1:56 major blocks. One is stationary beacons, so these are the stationary beacons. Mobile beacon, which you place on the object—it could be a person, forklift, robot, drone, anything moving—and the Modem. Modem is central controller of the system. Everything is described here so you can see all these nodes. It is the central controller of the system that basically commands everything: who is talking to whom over radio, at what time. It collects the data from the beacon, it sends the data to the beacons. It also connects to your system. It could be a Dashboard where you see the tracking, or it could be your robot, for example, which will be getting the data from the system. We can connect your robot and mostly people connect the robot directly with the mobile beacon because it's better and faster, and we can discuss this a bit later. But otherwise, again three major blocks:

2:55 stationary beacons placed around your building, warehouse, assembly plant, factory floor, whatever area; mobile beacon; and the Modem. Why is it the simplest? Why the Non-Inverse Architecture is the simplest? It's simple because it is using only one ultrasonic frequency. As you may remember and know, we are using radio for very precise clock synchronization between the beacons with the help of the Modem. This is why the Modem is a kind of your atomic clock—of course it's not an atomic clock, but it's serving the same purpose as atomic clocks, or let's say as the ground station and the atomic clocks on GPS. So the ground station doesn't correct those atomic clocks, but we don't have atomic clocks. Our system is significantly less expensive than GPS satellites, but we need to synchronize them all the time. So

3:53 the Modem's responsibility is synchronizing all the beacons. From this perspective, Non-Inverse Architecture, Inverse Architecture, and Multi-Frequency Inverse Architecture is principally the same. So the Modem is synchronizing, getting data—it could be slightly different format but it doesn't matter. So details don't matter in this case. What it does is synchronize. What does matter and what does differ is marked here in pink. So in Non-Inverse Architecture all frequencies that beacons are using is the same. By default we're using 31 kilohertz, but it could be other, but the point is they are the same. And you can compare with Inverse Architecture. In Inverse Architecture it's in principle different. Inverse Architecture—their frequencies used by different beacons are by definition different.

4:51 So 19, 25, 31, 37, 45. As you see there are six kilohertz steps between them. But because we need to receive all of those frequencies at the same time and be able to separate them from each other—because we need to receive them simultaneously—it's a pretty difficult technical task. But since we have digital filters inside, we're capable to do this. But this makes Inverse Architecture like 10 times more complex. Not only because of this, but this is already enough. Because in this case you kind of receive only one frequency at a time. In Inverse Architecture you receive at least five frequencies at a time, and it's very, very difficult to filter. It's very, very difficult to choose which one is which, because they look the same. And when one of the beacons is very close to, for example, one of the station beacons, then even if filtered out, the wrong frequency

5:49 can be hurt very much, like the right frequency which is far away. No, because the dynamic range of the filter is also limited. But to make their complex story short: Inverse Architecture is very, very complex. And the biggest difference is in terms of implementation: we are using the same frequency for Non-Inverse Architecture and different frequencies for Inverse Architecture. For you as a user, there the biggest difference is slightly different. What it is: who is emitting ultrasound? In Non-Inverse Architecture the mobile beacon is emitting, so producing this fast, fast, fast clicks. You cannot hear the ultrasound, but you may hear in a quiet room, like like I'm sitting now, clicks. In Inverse Architecture the stationary beacons are emitting ultrasound, and their mobile beacon is receiving. So by

6:47 by default and by design, their mobile beacons in Inverse Architecture are absolutely noiseless. This is why Inverse Architecture is recommended for people tracking, for example. Because you know quite a few people want something sticking on the shoulder. No, if you have a badge, it's absolutely quiet. Badge is absolutely quiet. And the station beacons, which are whatever 10, 20 meters apart—okay, first of all you cannot hear under such a distance. Second, who cares? They are there, particularly in industrial applications. So this is why if noise, or let's say even the slightest noise, is important for you, then Inverse Architecture is your choice and Non-Inverse Architecture is not. But the biggest, biggest, biggest difference as a result of this is the following: since you have more than one—when you

7:46 have more than one mobile beacon in Non-Inverse Architecture—since we are using only one frequency, you can serve only one mobile beacon at a time, because the frequency is the same. You cannot distinguish based on the frequency, and unfortunately we cannot distinguish them by beacons or something else, like code modulation, for example, or some special other modulation. No. The sensors are resonating, so they are very efficient in terms of emission. This is why the beacons consume so little power. This is why you can run them on battery. But the drawback: you cannot modulate the signal very much. So this is why at the time you can track only one mobile beacon, and then after a fraction of a second—fractions of seconds, you know, 80 hertz, so like 100 milliseconds or even less, 50 milliseconds—but still not simultaneously. You can take another one, then another one, then another one. But when you have like 100 mobile beacons, it means that one, two, three, four, five,

8:46 ninety-nine, one hundred, one, two, three. So the update rate per mobile beacon with Non-Inverse Architecture drops. So the biggest advantage of Non-Inverse Architecture is that it's very, very simple. The biggest disadvantage of Non-Inverse Architecture is that the update rate drops proportionally to the number of mobile beacons. With Inverse Architecture this is not happening. Within Inverse Architecture the stationary beacons are emitting different ultrasonic frequencies at the same time, and the mobile beacons are receiving those signals from different beacons, and they themselves calculate the position. And you can have whatever, thousand mobile beacons theoretically, and they all will calculate at the same time, and the update rate doesn't depend on the number of mobile beacons. This is the biggest advantage of Inverse Architecture, because you can run, and you can see our videos on YouTube,

9:46 where we run whatever 100 mobile beacons and the update rate is the same as with one. This is the biggest advantage. But disadvantage is that your mobile beacon is receiving ultrasound, and for example if you have a drone and drones are very noisy, so you cannot place their very sensitive receiving ultrasonic frequency beacon on the drone and the drone would fly. No, it will not work, because the noise would be such, you know, loud, even audible noise, but it will go to ultrasound as well. That it will block their reception of the ultrasound signal from the station beacons far apart. And their working distance would be not 30 meters like typically, but rather a few meters. How much? It totally depends on the conditions, on the noisiness of the drone, on many things. But it would significantly drop. So this is why for

10:44 very noisy objects like drones we do not recommend Inverse Architecture. It's for people tracking, but there is an alternative, means kind of in the middle. Okay, what if you have mobile beacons with different ultrasonic frequencies? 19, 25, 31, 37, etcetera. So in this case the robot will be emitting ultrasound, and we can put the mobile beacon on something noisy like a drone. But in this case, since we have five different frequencies, our Super-Beacons are able to distinguish between their different frequencies, and as a result between different drones. So it means that you can fly up to five drones without update rate reduction. And this is why Multi-Frequency NIA. So it's like NIA. It's exactly like NIA, but it's like five different NIAs at the same time with the same number of beacons. So you don't need to install more beacons, no, the same beacons,

11:43 but five different frequencies. So you get the MF NIA license, you enable it, and then you enjoy higher update rate if you have more than five drones. Then yes, the update rate will start, you know, reduce, but five times slower than with NIA. So for example for 10 drones you will have only half speed reduction, and with NIA it would be 10 times speed reduction per drone compared to the whole system. So for example if you have whatever 10 hertz and with 10 drones, for NIA you'll have only one hertz per drone, and with Multi-Frequency NIA you will have 5 hertz update rate. So hopefully that what we discussed is useful for you. If you have additional questions please ask to info@marvelmind.com and we're always happy to help.