Autonomous magnetic field-based indoor location

Project Information

AMFIL

Grant agreement ID: 808636

DOI

10.3030/808636

Project closed

EC signature date 8 February 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 31 August 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

DEVELLYN
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AMFIL (Autonomous magnetic field-based indoor location)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2018-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In hospitals, retail centers, office buildings and on the factory floor, real-time tracking of mobile assets and people can considerably improve efficiency, quality of services and security. Indoor navigation faces many challenges differing from well-established outdoor navigation technologies as high-micro-scale accuracy to data underpins interior navigable space of buildings. Current Internet-connected tracking solutions typically resort to extensive sensor networks which face many shortcomings (visibility area, coverage area, signal propagation, etc.).

A universal IoT solution would offer great promises by offering real time information on where people and things are. Therefore, Devellyn is developing a RTLS based on autonomous magnetic field-based indoor location resulting from a patent family from the French Space Agency.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SME Phase 1 aimed at modelling structure of magnetic fields with support from research centers, benchmarking magnetometers spécifications and conducting market surveys to engage go-to-market strategy by end 2018, analyzing economic feasibility and assessing Freedom to Operate so as to obtain full ownership of our patent portfolio.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Buildings with reinforced concrete, steel structures and large objects wraps the geomagnetic field in a spatially-varying way which can be used for navigation. Our approach consisted in developing a relative positioning technology based on standalone magnetic tags which compute location by sensing magnetic field lines within a facility. The tags worked just like inertial measurement units. Therefore, our technology circumvents magnetic field variations which jeopardize current solutions based on fingerprinting. Our technology offers significant advantages: no infrastructure network to be deployed on site, no initial fingerprinting, no need for extensive computing power, high accuracy. Moreover, our business model is based on a pay-for-outcomes approach which will facilitate market adoption. In the longer run, we will broaden the approach by delivering our technology to other sectors (e.g. logistics sector, manufacturing industry, etc.) so as to deliver customized value.

Hassle-free Indoor positioning