I-Corps: Asset Tracking using Bluetooth Beacons

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力涉及大规模的资产标记--监控和跟踪组织的实物资产。可能受到影响的潜在领域包括配送中心、制造和组装设施、港口和车队。该项目能够收集有关资产的地理位置信息，为数据分析以及生产力和移动优化提供机会。专注于这些和其他应用将导致更快的运输时间、更低的燃料消耗和更高的产品可追溯性。例如，在港口，该项目的具体影响可能包括跟踪多式联运底盘(即用于运输集装箱的轮式车架)，解决底盘短缺和底盘存储难题等经典问题，从而实现更快的产品移动和运输时间。此外，在港口跟踪多式联运集装箱可以提供以3-D方式对整个堆叠集装箱集合以及彼此相邻放置的集装箱进行标注的机会。因此，减少了多式联运集装箱搜索时间，从而实现了港口更高的集装箱吞吐量。这个i-Corps项目使用了一种新的低成本通信技术配置，包括蓝牙、GPS和蜂窝模块，以支持快速且具有成本效益的资产跟踪，并结合使用复杂算法的软件。这些技术的结合产生了实时、直接的结果，包括通过简单的用户界面进行快速部署响应。竞争对手的系统通常需要设施范围内的永久性基础设施来支持部署，这可能会导致长时间的安装和非常高的运营成本。为这个i-Corps项目开发的系统大大减少了所需的基础设施数量，并且可以在不到一天的时间内安装任何规模的设施。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project involves large scale asset tagging -- to monitor and track an organization's physical assets. Potential areas that could be impacted include distribution centers, manufacturing and assembly facilities, ports, and vehicle fleets. This project enables geo-location information to be collected about assets, providing opportunities for data analysis and productivity and movement optimization. A focus on these and other applications will result in faster shipping times, lower fuel consumption, and increased traceability of products. At ports, for example, a specific impact of the project may include tracking of intermodal chassis (i.e., the wheeled frames used for moving shipping containers), addressing classic problems such as chassis shortages and chassis storage dilemmas, thus enabling faster product movement and shipping times. Additionally, tracking intermodal containers at ports may present opportunities to dimension, in 3-D, entire collections of stacked containers as well as those placed adjacent to each other. As a result, intermodal container search-time is decreased enabling higher container throughput at the port.This I-Corps Project utilizes a novel configuration of low-cost communications technologies, including Bluetooth, GPS, and cellular modules, to support rapid and cost-effective asset tracking coupled with software utilizing complex algorithms. The combination of these technologies yields real-time direct results including rapid deployment response with a simple user interface. Competing systems often require facility-wide, permanent infrastructure to support deployment that can result in lengthy installation times coupled with very high operating costs. The system developed for this I-Corps project significantly reduces the amount of infrastructure necessary and can be installed in less than one day for any size facility.