Tracking Personnel with Abeeway Smart Badge

Getting Started With Geolocation

Geolocation is the process of determining and tracking the geographical location of a device or an individual in real-time using various technologies and techniques. It involves using a combination of methods such as GPS (Global Positioning System), ThingPark X, cellular networks, IP addresses, and other sensors to pinpoint the precise location of the target.

The primary purpose of geolocation is to provide location-based services and enable applications to deliver personalized and relevant information based on a user’s current or specified location. It has a wide range of applications across different industries, including navigation and mapping, transportation and logistics, social networking, marketing, weather forecasting, emergency services, and more.

By utilizing geolocation, devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers can determine their own location or track the location of other objects or individuals. This information can be used for various purposes, such as finding directions, sharing location-based content, locating nearby services or points of interest, monitoring fleet vehicles, ensuring public safety, and enhancing user experiences in a multitude of applications.

Overview of this Activity

In this activity, you are going to create a geolocation tracking environment. In this environment, you will facilitate the creation of a system that lets you monitor the movements of your belongings, specifically your Smart Badge, via a mobile application (AMA). The backbone of this system is LoRaWAN® networking technology, which will be used to transfer location messages from your Smart Badge to backend systems.

The badge you’ll be using is designated with LoRaWAN® connectivity, enabling seamless communication with LoRaWAN® gateways. This badge is equipped with geolocation capabilities based on GPS, WiFi fingerprinting, and BLE beaconing. It will periodically transmit its location data across the LoRaWAN® network. LoRaWAN® gateways will pick up these signals and forward the data to a backend platform.

To visually track your movements, a mobile application will connect to the backend platform. The application will receive the location updates from the badge and present them on a map interface. This map interface not only displays your current position in real-time but also chronicles your movements over time. As a result, you can actively monitor your trajectory while operating within the bounds of LoRaWAN® network coverage.

The mobile application extends its utility by offering supplementary features, including the ability to set up geofences or trigger notifications upon entry or exit from designated zones. This comprehensive functionality provides users with a user-friendly and customizable tracking experience. In essence, within this environment, you craft a pragmatic solution for personal tracking and location-based monitoring, harnessing the capabilities of both LoRaWAN® connectivity and geolocation technologies.

Solution Overview

The Abeeway Smart Badge plays a central role in this solution by sharing your location data. This data is sourced either from your mobile phone (when in close proximity to the Smart Badge) or from the LoRaWAN® community network (when the mobile phone is at a distance). This arrangement ensures that regardless of your mobile phone’s proximity, your Smart Badge’s location is tracked.

To facilitate tracking, two tools come into play: the Abeeway Mobile Application for your smartphone and the Abeeway Device Manager for your web browser. These applications empower you to monitor the movements of your Smart Badge. The nature of the information flow hinges on the proximity between your Smart Badge and your mobile phone, where the Abeeway Mobile Application is installed.

During regular operation(*), your Smart Badge establishes a connection with the Abeeway Mobile Application through Bluetooth (Step 1). Subsequently, the Abeeway Mobile Application employs its location service to determine the badge’s precise location (Step 2). The Abeeway Mobile Application then transmits this location information, along with the presence of the Smart Badge, to the ThingPark X Location Engine (Step 3). This information is ultimately stored within the TPX IoT Core system (Step 4). Following this data transmission, you gain the ability to monitor badge movements through either the Abeeway Mobile Application on your smartphone (Step 5) or by accessing the Abeeway Device Manager via a web browser (Steps 6 and 7), providing comprehensive tracking options as depicted in the corresponding image annotations.

*Please notice that in this case (i.e., your Smart Badge is close to your mobile phone), your badge minimizes its activities in order to use its battery efficiently.

In the scenario where your Smart Badge is distanced from your mobile phone, the following process ensues:

The device employs its GNSS/WiFi capabilities to ascertain its location.
It subsequently transmits this location information as a LoRaWAN® message.
The transmitted signals are captured by a LoRaWAN® gateway.
The received message is then directed to the TPC (ThingPark Community Platform) Network Server.
The ThingPark X location message is further forwarded to the Location Engine.
Finally, the location information finds its place within the TPX IoT Core(**) system.

Following this sequence of actions, you gain the ability to track movements through either the Abeeway Mobile Application on your mobile phone (Step 6) or the Abeeway Device Manager accessible through a web browser (Steps 7 and 8).

It’s important to note that LoRaWAN® serves as a backup connection, coming into play when the asset being tracked is situated far from the mobile phone.

** IoT Core is an IoT database for time series data.

Requirements

ThingPark Community Account

The Actility ThingPark Community platform is an IoT network platform that gives developers, solution providers, and system integrators a place to work together to make and deploy IoT applications. The platform is based on LoRaWAN® technology, which is a low-power, long-range wireless communication protocol that lets devices connect to the internet.

The ThingPark Community platform gives developers a number of features and tools to help them build IoT solutions.

Device management: The platform makes it easy for users to sign up and manage their devices, as well as check on how well they are working and change their settings.
Data management: The platform provides tools to collect, store, and analyze data from IoT devices and to generate insights and actionable intelligence.
Application development: The platform provides a range of tools and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to enable developers to create customized IoT applications.
Integration: The platform is easy to connect to other systems and platforms, such as enterprise applications and cloud services.
Collaboration: The platform provides a collaborative environment for developers, solution providers, and system integrators to share knowledge and expertise and collaborate on projects and solutions.

Overall, Actility’s ThingPark Community platform is a comprehensive and flexible platform that enables users to create, deploy, and manage a wide range of IoT applications and solutions. It provides information about LoRaWAN® and related IoT topics.

You can find more information at the ThingPark Community website.

In the course of the activity, you’re going to create an account on TPC if you don’t already have one.

Abeeway Smart Badge

In this activity, you will use the Abeeway Smart Badge to report its location. The Abeeway Smart Badge is a compact and versatile tracker designed like an ID card. It comes with built-in sensors that use various technologies like GPS, low-power GPS, ThingPark X Sniffer, BLE, and LoRaWAN® TDoA for accurate and continuous geolocation, both indoors and outdoors.

It’s easy to use, with just one button to access a range of personalized functions. The device has a Panic/SOS(**) button for emergencies. Additionally, it has an 80dB buzzer that can be used for geofence applications like dangerous zones(**) entrance and nearby cases.

* For more information, please visit:

https://docs.thingpark.com/thingpark-location/B-Feature-Topics/SmartBadge_C/

https://www.abeeway.com/smart-badge/

** Panic/SOS & buzzer configuration is not explained in this activity.

Abeeway Device Manager (ADM)

In this activity, you’ll use the ADM application to view the location of your Abeeway Smart Badge on a web browser. ADM comes with many useful features, such as location history, tracker configuration management, and performance insights like radio and technology usage based on location, as well as battery monitoring. It’s a powerful tool to keep track of your Smart Badge and gather valuable information.

*For more information, please visit:

https://www.abeeway.com/abeeway-device-manager/
https://docs.thingpark.com/thingpark-location/B-Feature-Topics/AbeewayDeviceManager_C/

Abeeway Mobile Application (AMA)

In this activity, you’ll use the AMA application to view the location of your Abeeway Smart Badge on a mobile phone. It is a native mobile app for iOS and Android, and it interacts with the tracker over Bluetooth. Using this application, you can:

-View the location of the tracker.

-Request location information.

-Share the location of the tracking device.

-Page the tracker to make it beep.

-Define alerts and geofence boundaries for the tracker.

-Set the tracker on airplane mode

-Update the firmware

*For more information, please visit:

https://docs.thingpark.com/thingpark-location/C-Procedure-Topics/GetStartedMobileApp_T/#prerequisites

Activity Steps

In this activity, you are going to perform two sets of steps. The first set is to set up the environment, and the second set is to see messages on the backend and through a mobile app.