Booth Staff Tracker

Booth staff at Embedded World 2005 wearing wireless badges for tracking

Display of booth staff tracker used at Embedded World 2005

Fraunhofer IIS's booth staff tracker makes it possible to locate, and determine the status of, staff members in buildings or at trade show booths.

A set of fixed anchor nodes, which know and transmit their positions, are deployed around a trade show booth or part of a building. The exact number of anchor nodes to be used depends on the environment. Each staff member is equipped with a small wireless node.

The anchor and mobile nodes autonomously organize themselves into a multi-hop network. At regular intervals, the mobile nodes transmit their identification codes and other data to a central node, which may be placed at an information desk or in a lobby. As long as a wireless node worn by a staff member is within reception range, its wearer is marked present on an attendance roster.

Information or queries can be sent from the central node to particular staff members. For instance, a person wearing a wireless badge can be informed that a visitor wants to talk to them (paging).

Tracking

To determine a staff member's position, a location query is first sent to the wireless node worn by the person being tracked, which in turn transmits their calculated position.

The wireless node autonomously determines its position within the sensor network based both on the anchor nodes in its immediate vicinity and on RSSI (received signal strength indication) readings, i.e. by measuring the strength of signals received from anchor nodes.

Features

Smart Metering

Today cost efficient meter reading with Fraunhofer IIS wireless sensor networksto allows equipping each device with low complexity radio nodes. These transmit the data wirelessly via Multi-Hop communication to a master node, which again forwards all collected data via power line communication or GSM/GPRS to a central server. Also control commands can be sent to every single reader from the back office.

Adaptable Hard- and Software

Software basis of these smart systems is a power saving protocol, the so-called »Slotted MAC« of the Fraunhofer IIS. The Fraunhofer scientists also optimized the hardware: The sensor node is small in dimension, extremely power efficient and can be adapted to custom-tailored sensor network solutions.

The main features of our combined hardware and software kit are:

This innovative technology was licensed by the Austrian company VERAUT in order to develop their VERSIM product portfolio. The Linz-based company manufactures data loggers and communication equipment for gas, water and heat meter. VERAUT utilizes the Fraunhofer technology in pilot projects for OÖ Ferngas, Linz AG and Wien Energie GmbH.

Features of the VERISM Solution

The battery-powered VERISM – RF module is a wireless, cost efficient Meter Reading solution for reading the meters of household customers via license free 868 MHz RF mesh-network technology, transmitting data via radio frequency (868MHz) to a master node from where it is centralized transmitted via PLC or GSM to the back office.

The main features are:

Service that meets your Requirements

The innovative s-net®-Technologie for wireless sensor networks of the Fraunhofer IIS is a basis to custom-tailored sensor network solutions for wireless data collection, monitoring, positioning and control.

We will work with you from conception to product launch, utilizing our expertise in radio-frequency circuit design, protocols, energy management and system design for wireless and self-organizing sensor networks.

• Press Release "Smart Metering - no Battery, no Wire" [ PDF 146KB ]

OPAL-Health

Optimizing Hospital Processes

Hospitals are under increasing pressure to reduce costs. This means that they will need to use their resources even more efficiently in the future. Fraunhofer IIS has now developed a wireless system for locating medical equipment and blood products as well as for condition monitoring. The project, which is called »OPAL-Health«, makes managing medical equipment easier and improves the safety of transfusion procedures.

Getting a grip on the hospital routine

»OPAL-Health« makes it possible to continuously monitor and document the transport, storage and use of medical equipment such as portable ECG machines. The system which will be developed facilitates the management of medical equipment by helping to detect overcapacity, enabling simpler, more transparent cost assessment and streamlining administration and planning. In addition, it offers protection against theft and tampering.

»Smart Objects« - Self-organizing helpers

The system consists of what are known as »smart objects« – microelectronic modules which are able to gather and save information from their environment and communicate wirelessly. These abilities are based on Fraunhofer IIS’s s-net® technology for energy saving, wireless sensor networks.

The sensor nodes form a wireless network which organizes itself and constantly collects needed data such as location or temperature. The information is then transmitted to the hospital’s main informational system. By their innate intelligence the sensor nodes can also make decisions on-site without the central server which is particularly important when matching blood products to patients.

Integrated power supplies allow the smart objects to activate autonomously so they can e. g. alert critical conditions. They do not need to be activated by an RFID reader and also transmit using much less power. As a result, the electromagnetic field can be minimized, which prevents interference. This is particularly important if smart objects are attached to medical devices or used in their immediate vicinity.

This newly developed technology not only enables much more efficient equipment management, but also improves blood transfusion safety, as smart objects can be used to continuously monitor the temperature of blood products. If the cold chain is interrupted, the system will automatically raise an alert. Keeping a continuous record of the storage conditions of blood products also saves resources. Thanks to this new technology, unused blood products which would currently have to be discarded because the cold chain is not reliably recorded will be safe to use in the future. »OPAL-Health« also minimizes the risk of mix-ups.

Trial Run at Erlangen University Hospital

The system can be seamlessly integrated into a hospital’s information systems, which makes it possible to reuse and analyze the data for other purposes, for instance more efficient stock management. Since 2010 the system is being tested in the context of actual day-to-day processes at Erlangen University Hospital.

Consortium

The »OPAL-Health« project is directed by T-Systems. The project partners – namely the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS; the Fraunhofer Center Supply Chain Services SCS; Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg; Vierling Communications and Delta-T – are working together on a basic technology for a wide range of applications geared towards optimizing hospital processes.

»OPAL-Health« is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology as part of its “SimoBIT” program, which is aimed at developing secure mobile IT applications that help medium-sized companies and public agencies to maximize value creation.

• Press Release "Optimizing Hospital Processes" [ PDF 160KB ]

Olog-PAT

The hospital capacities for checking and treating patients are limited and at the same time highly frequented. People often have to visit several places all over the clinique in one day. If the schedules of patients and surgeries are not well organized, there will be both overcharge and queue times. Up to now this is an aggravating issue, which is hard to handle since delays and sudden emergencies are permanently present in the daily routine of a hospital. Plans have to be overthrown all the time.

Olog-PAT (Optimized Logistic System for Patients in Health Care) is able to release hospital employees in handling this difficult problem and so increases the service qualities of the clinique. In Olog-PAT a wireless sensor network collects real-time positioning and condition data of patients. Therefore Fraunhofer IIS developed “Smart-Objects”, small enough to carry them on the wrist. They are microelectronic modules and can gather, save and communicate all needed information on their environment on basis of the s-net® technology of Fraunhofer IIS for wireless and energy-saving sensor networks.

By this knowledge hospital processes can be analysed. The “Smart-Objects” build up a transmitting system so the information collected can be communicated to the hospital’s central information system.

Furthermore the Smart Objects are able to make own decisions without running the information through the main computer servers. This is an improvement to RFID tags which have to be activated by reading devices, sending out highly energetic signals. s-net® technology transmits in much lower energy levels and so reduces the electromagnetic fields and interferences – very important if used next to medical devices.

Currently Olog-PAT is tested by the Sozialstiftung Bamberg in the Klinikum am Bruderwald.

SMMART: System for Mobile Maintenance Accessible in Real Time

Prototyp SMART Item on a vehicle for transmitting sensor data

 

Schematic diagram of a sensor network integrated with the back office.

SMMART (System for Mobile Maintenance Accessible in Real Time) is a project sponsored by the European Union that helped advance the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) and sensor network communication in service parts logistics.

Through a wireless network based on the s-net® technology sensor nodes transmit information on the condition of the machine or its components. The user is connected to the SMMART system via a web interface, which involves extracting data from a global vehicle database. The data is checked for anomalies and an alarm is generated whenever a deviation is detected. By analyzing the frequency of different types of malfunctions, it became possible to monitor the life cycle of a vehicle using its on-board diagnostic system. While the vehicle is in use, data regarding the components is transmitted via the gateway to the back office. In this way, wireless sensor networks can help monitor critical components.

In the spring of 2007, the wireless sensor network was first used on moving vehicles to test communication between sensors, access point and gateway. In the fall of the same year, following the successful completion of this test, additional testing was conducted during real-life road travel in order to evaluate both the transmission of data from the gateway to the back office and the performance of the sensor nodes in harsh conditions.

The software and hardware for Smart Items that was developed by Fraunhofer IIS as part of this EU-sponsored project now forms a basis for custom projects and system solutions.

VitOL: Networked Intelligent Objects in Logistics

Project VitOL started in 2007 and focused on exploring how active intelligent/smart objects and wireless mesh technology can help narrow the gap between the physical and information world. Specific objectives are:

In logistics, objects should ideally be distinctively identifiable and their condition and location should always be known. In addition, intelligent objects should be able to communicate with their environment at any time as well as to act autonomously and targeted if no connection can be established.

In the VitOL research project, several Fraunhofer institutes collaborated to create intelligent objects specially geared towards the logistics of the distribution of high-value goods. For this purpose, so-called "Smart Items" are equipped with network-capable miniature computers. Their "intelligence" renders them superior to conventional, passive RFID systems, which transmit data only on request. This characteristic makes it possible to answer a number of fundamental issues in distribution logistics. By supplying data relating to each individual item in a shipment, for instance, Smart Items can make the flow of goods more transparent.

In addition, they actively protect goods from theft: If a Smart Item detects that an item is being removed from the shipment, it will notify higher-level IT systems. This helps minimize the loss of goods. Thanks to their integrated sensors, the objects can also detect tampering and improper handling.

Wireless Sensor Networks as an Enabling Technology

Self-organizing sensor networks provide the technological basis. They are characterized by mesh-network intercommunication between all nodes. Each peer can simultaneously act as source, destination and relay, which increases network coverage, flexibility, independence and error tolerance.

Fraunhofer IIS develops all the necessary components, for instance ad-hoc networking mechanisms, network protocols featuring power-efficient medium access layers and efficient routing algorithms, distributed services and middleware as well as specific software applications.

Power-Efficient Hardware and Software

Fraunhofer IIS's patented Slotted MAC medium access protocol combines the efficiency of time-division multiple access with the scalability and flexibility of contention-based protocols. The key characteristics of Slotted MAC are:

In combination with the power-efficient node hardware for fast multi-hop data forwarding Fraunhofer IIS has created large-scale battery-powered monitoring systems for use in logistics.