Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ORIENTATE (Low-cost Reliable Indoor Positioning in Smart Factories)
Período documentado: 2021-09-01 hasta 2023-08-31
Industry is the backbone of the European economy, directly providing 35 million jobs and whose products cover more than 20% of the EU’s total added-value . The European Commission stands on the brink of a new industrial revolution (i.e. Industry 4.0,) by maintaining European industry’s global competitiveness, reaching climate-neutrality by 2050, and promoting the industry digitalisation. The main features of Industry 4.0 are: high degree of connectivity in factories, adoption of autonomous production methods and enhance predictive maintenance.
Indoor Positioning will play a relevant role in factories by bringing safety, transparency, preventive maintenance and efficiency in logistics. The supporting systems, mainly Industrial Internet of Things or Cyber-Physical Systems, will enable tracking within the factory and sharing information with all the elements of the value chain. The automatization of factories, with full product traceability and the co-existence of intelligent unmanned vehicles with human operators, allows a faster reaction on product quality degradation and machinery breakdowns. Also, production becomes more flexible as it can be adapted to the market demands and customers can dynamically handle key factors (quality, production time, price, environmental sustainability) in real-time at all stages of the value chain (from development to distribution). A strong industry sector has a positive impact on the local, national and European economy. However, fragmentation of Indoor Positioning technologies, lack of interoperable practices and limited evaluation procedures in the field are preventing Indoor Positioning widespread usage.
Tracking and supporting navigation of unmanned vehicles that freely operate in industrial facilities are the core of “Low-cost Reliable Indoor Positioning in Smart Factories” (ORIENTATE). The ORIENTATE project aims at the development and industrialization of a reliable and scalable indoor positioning system (IPS), meeting the requirements of smart factories. Increasing knowledge and global competitiveness will attract investors providing profitability and internationalisation, with an expected positive impact in the Portuguese economy and European innovation.
Namely, in a broader sense, the ORIENTATE main objectives are:
1. Identifying the requirements and weaknesses of IP in industrial facilities;
2. Providing a new low-cost and scalable technology for Indoor Positioning in industrial settings;
3. Improving the interoperability of Indoor Positioning Systems to enable an efficient combination of different sources of data;
4. Promoting an open repository for Indoor Positioning in order to reduce waste of resources in on-factory testing and increase safety for UVs testing in factories.
As conclusion, within the project context:
- the BSpoters units have been developed. They correspond to the last iteration of the L-Trackers prototypes defined in the project proposal. Their cost, at prototyping level, is less than 100€. Laboratory testing gave us interesting results being possible to cover approximately 25m2 with each unit.
- In the empirical assessment, we identified that frame-based processing is a major bottleneck as the time to grab and process a single frame is larger than expected as irrelevant data, i.e. those pixels where no L-Beacon (light emitter) is present, have also to be processed and analysed. As alternative, we have decided to move to sensing with alternative sensors;
- In terms of evaluation and assessment, two datasets have been collected. Additional testing is scheduled for 2024.
Indoor Positioning will play a relevant role in factories by bringing safety, transparency, preventive maintenance and efficiency in logistics. The supporting systems, mainly Industrial Internet of Things or Cyber-Physical Systems, will enable tracking within the factory and sharing information with all the elements of the value chain. The automatization of factories, with full product traceability and the co-existence of intelligent unmanned vehicles with human operators, allows a faster reaction on product quality degradation and machinery breakdowns. Also, production becomes more flexible as it can be adapted to the market demands and customers can dynamically handle key factors (quality, production time, price, environmental sustainability) in real-time at all stages of the value chain (from development to distribution). A strong industry sector has a positive impact on the local, national and European economy. However, fragmentation of Indoor Positioning technologies, lack of interoperable practices and limited evaluation procedures in the field are preventing Indoor Positioning widespread usage.
Tracking and supporting navigation of unmanned vehicles that freely operate in industrial facilities are the core of “Low-cost Reliable Indoor Positioning in Smart Factories” (ORIENTATE). The ORIENTATE project aims at the development and industrialization of a reliable and scalable indoor positioning system (IPS), meeting the requirements of smart factories. Increasing knowledge and global competitiveness will attract investors providing profitability and internationalisation, with an expected positive impact in the Portuguese economy and European innovation.
Namely, in a broader sense, the ORIENTATE main objectives are:
1. Identifying the requirements and weaknesses of IP in industrial facilities;
2. Providing a new low-cost and scalable technology for Indoor Positioning in industrial settings;
3. Improving the interoperability of Indoor Positioning Systems to enable an efficient combination of different sources of data;
4. Promoting an open repository for Indoor Positioning in order to reduce waste of resources in on-factory testing and increase safety for UVs testing in factories.
As conclusion, within the project context:
- the BSpoters units have been developed. They correspond to the last iteration of the L-Trackers prototypes defined in the project proposal. Their cost, at prototyping level, is less than 100€. Laboratory testing gave us interesting results being possible to cover approximately 25m2 with each unit.
- In the empirical assessment, we identified that frame-based processing is a major bottleneck as the time to grab and process a single frame is larger than expected as irrelevant data, i.e. those pixels where no L-Beacon (light emitter) is present, have also to be processed and analysed. As alternative, we have decided to move to sensing with alternative sensors;
- In terms of evaluation and assessment, two datasets have been collected. Additional testing is scheduled for 2024.
In terms of the activities closely related to the ORIENTATE’s research objectives, we have:
- Set-up a laboratory setting to assess and run the indoor positioning system based on BSpoters. It currently has 3 regular BSpoters with regular cameras and IR filters, as well as two BSpoters with cameras sensitive only to IR light.
- Collected two sets of datasets for assessment of light-based positioning using the L-Trackers. The first dataset focusing on static tracking of the BSpoters in different conditions: exposure time, image resolutions, location and orientation of the B-Tracker prototypes, location and orientation of the BSpot. The second dataset focusing on the evaluation of other cameras and movement of Beacons.
- Analysed and developed computer-vision methods to detect blinking light from L-Beacons with low computational cost. This includes polarity change detection, accurate thresholding for noise removal, and efficiently clustering information coming from the same L-Beacon at a large range of distances between the L-Beacon and L-Trackers (BSpoters).
- Explored different approaches to code orthogonal information with short codes transmitted with low frequency.
- Generated a graph-based structure to track all the sequences of detected light transitions within a short period with temporal and spatial restrictions.
- Developed a tracking approach to detect the L-Beacons’ codes within the graph structure through optimized code-adaptive correlation procedures.
- Set-up a laboratory setting to assess and run the indoor positioning system based on BSpoters. It currently has 3 regular BSpoters with regular cameras and IR filters, as well as two BSpoters with cameras sensitive only to IR light.
- Collected two sets of datasets for assessment of light-based positioning using the L-Trackers. The first dataset focusing on static tracking of the BSpoters in different conditions: exposure time, image resolutions, location and orientation of the B-Tracker prototypes, location and orientation of the BSpot. The second dataset focusing on the evaluation of other cameras and movement of Beacons.
- Analysed and developed computer-vision methods to detect blinking light from L-Beacons with low computational cost. This includes polarity change detection, accurate thresholding for noise removal, and efficiently clustering information coming from the same L-Beacon at a large range of distances between the L-Beacon and L-Trackers (BSpoters).
- Explored different approaches to code orthogonal information with short codes transmitted with low frequency.
- Generated a graph-based structure to track all the sequences of detected light transitions within a short period with temporal and spatial restrictions.
- Developed a tracking approach to detect the L-Beacons’ codes within the graph structure through optimized code-adaptive correlation procedures.
ORIENTATE will progress the knowledge regarding the capabilities and limitations of Indoor Positioning, with a particular interest in industrial environments. The project plans to gather relevant information from prototype development to technology transfer for its exploitation. The final goal is to advance state of the art, developing a new Indoor Positioning solution that balances technical (accuracy) and economical (scalability) restrictions and a novel sensor fusion method to dynamically combine different IP technologies improving their individual coverage.
The integration of advanced indoor positioning at different levels of the industrial chain will enhance the efficient use of materials, energy and manual labour, resulting in an efficient production/logistics and a relevant reduction of waste. Leading the scheduled activities to provide new positioning technologies and standardize the evaluation for industrial scenarios may promote Europe as the hearth of Indoor Positioning research and development.
The integration of advanced indoor positioning at different levels of the industrial chain will enhance the efficient use of materials, energy and manual labour, resulting in an efficient production/logistics and a relevant reduction of waste. Leading the scheduled activities to provide new positioning technologies and standardize the evaluation for industrial scenarios may promote Europe as the hearth of Indoor Positioning research and development.