“How many stationary beacons do we need to cover our office space for autonomous indoor patrolling drone?”
It is relatively simple to estimate how many stationary beacons are required to cover an area in 3D (XYZ). There is a single most important rule that governs everything:
- The size of the indoor positioning is system is virtually unlimited, but the farthest distance from a mobile beacon to stationary beacons with a direct line of sight must not more than 30 meters
Thus, the art and science of network planning is place the stationary beacons inside your premises so that area is covered with the least number of beacons. The first draft is shown below.
A more structured approach with many examples is given in the Placement Manual, which can be found on the Downloads page.
Before we dive deeper into the range question, let us stress one more time that the most crucial requirement for the system to work is the requirement of the line of sight:
- For tracking, the mobile beacon must have a direct line of sight (hearing) to three or more stationary beacons within 30 meters
Additional points to remember
- Very narrow corridors will require more stationary beacons – more densely placed beacons – like in the example above. So, for example, in a narrow 1.5m corridor, the maximum recommended distance between the stationary beacons would be ~7-10m or less if you want higher accuracy. If the corridor is 5m wide, the beacons could be placed on ~20m distance
- In the floor plan, if it was just an open space area, only 8 stationary beacons would be sufficient to cover the whole area in 3D (XYZ) as compared to 31 required beacons with non-line of sight and narrow corridors and small rooms
Not only the number of beacons required to cover “geometrically inconvenient” areas would be higher than that of “geometrically convenient” areas but in many cases, one still has to sacrifice accuracy in some dimensions.
See the videos below explaining and showing this in detail:
We can calculate the required equipment for you – beacons, modems, antennas, power supply converters, batteries, and other auxiliary materials. We will send you a basic questionnaire and share the calculations with you based on your answers.
Network planning and implementation:
- Precise indoor positioning – planning phase – a basic questionnaire
- Precise indoor positioning – implementation phase – steps we do together with customers
- Typical costs examples from a small PoC project to a larger warehouse
Summary
Calculation of the number of beacons required is equally a technical and economical exercise. It is a simple exercise if you understand the underlying logic. It is typically sufficiently accurate for budgetary estimates.
If you want to be even more certain or feel that the calculations are still way too technical, please, simply get in touch with us via info@marvelmind.com. We are always happy to help.