Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Enables Smart Factory Of The Future

Micro-location is essential to digitalizing industrial operations through Industry 4.0, smart factory and LEAN initiatives. Process optimization and safety – the two prime considerations to most industries – become more informed through tying who, what, when and where to people, tools, supplies, goods, machinery and events – in real-time. Current location-based technologies – GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth® Low Energy – cannot achieve micro-location at the precision industry requires.

GPSs under ten-meter precision enabled an explosion of retail e-commerce and allowed us to dump those big map books; Wi-Fi helped nail down even finer location precision; and Bluetooth Low Energy locates within a few feet in ideal conditions. But industrial and business applications need finer precision and much higher reliability.