Indoor positioning

GPS transformed outdoor positioning, but inside an industrial building it loses accuracy or simply stops working: metal structures and roofing block the satellite signal. Indoor positioning solves the problem with a different approach, using radio networks installed in the facility itself to calculate where each device is.

Several techniques are in use across industry, from proximity beacons to signal-strength triangulation. The choice depends on the accuracy required and the scale: finding a piece of tooling in an aircraft factory is a different problem from knowing where thousands of people are during a maintenance turnaround. In large plants, long-range networks such as LoRaWAN can cover the whole site with only a few infrastructure points.

For workplace safety, real-time location changes emergency response: the control room knows where help is needed and who is nearest to provide it. For operations, the same information becomes visibility: headcount by area, movement through the plant, and time spent at each stage of the process.

At PHYGITALL, indoor positioning comes from the Smartbadge connected to the company’s private LoRaWAN network, locating workers and assets at scale, inside and outside hazardous (classified) areas.