April/May 2008

Do you need to track the movement of fork-trucks, conveyors, tools, even scanners around your warehouse? Not to mention the actual goods being stored? Cambridge-based Ubisense says its series 7000 tracking system could be just what you need. The company claims the system is already providing improvements in security, transparency, quality and availability for many logistics operators.

Whilst RFID lies at the heart of the system, there is rather more to it than that. For a start, it uses battery-operated tags transmitting ultra-wide band (UWB) RF impulses (location signals) in the frequency range 6 to 8.5 Gigahertz. It says the very short, precisely timed radio pulses provide a reliable and accurate location measurement even in difficult environments such as those storing large amounts of liquids and metals.

These work in conjunction with location sensors mounted around the facility, which receive and process the tag signals and communicate the results back to client software via industry standard IT networking.

The last element in the process is the company's own Ubisense Location Platform software, which records, edits and visualises the location data, and can perform functions such as logging the insertion into and removal of goods from warehouse storage racking automatically.