Self-powered (mantenance-free) wireless asset-tracking and monitoring system for hospitals, healthcare and logistics

正如新冠肺炎疫情所证明的那样，至关重要的是，护士和医生的时间要有效地用于患者护理，而不是浪费在寻找泵、呼吸机、床、轮椅、血压和心电图监测仪等丢失的设备上。研究表明，医务人员每个工作班次可能会花费长达两个小时的时间来寻找设备。多个行业来源估计，每年有10%到20%的医院库存被盗或丢失。目前用于跟踪医院资产的解决方案基于电池供电的RFID或蓝牙技术。这种实时定位系统（RTLS）可以显示设备位置数据。然而，他们遭受了巨大的总拥有成本（由于有限的设备使用寿命和需要大量维护），缺乏设备互操作性和模块化（不可能轻松升级系统）。因此，在医疗保健领域仍然不愿意部署资产跟踪解决方案，尽管有可能节省金钱和生命。如果解决方案与医院现有的网络基础设施和法规不兼容，安装费用确实会很高。在这个项目中，Lightricity（总部位于牛津的SME，从SHARP Labs分拆出来）将专注于通过开发一个完全自主的（使用室内光伏电池自供电）和模块化的无线硬件解决方案来降低整体拥有成本，用于资产跟踪和监控。Lightricity将展示一个基于标准的系统，该系统可以支持与现有物联网云软件和网络基础设施的互操作功能。该项目的目标将集中在两个关键演示器的开发上：* 具有通用实时跟踪功能的自供电室内资产跟踪设备原型。*先进的自供电室内无线监控设备，用于检测资产移动和监控敏感设备。未来，开发的技术还将适用于患者监测和追踪，以防止医院和护理院、运输和供应链管理（物流和零售）中的感染传播。

As evidenced in the Covid-19 pandemic, it is crucial that nurses and doctors' time is productively spent on patient care rather than wasted on finding missing equipment such as pumps, ventilators, beds, wheelchairs, blood pressure and ECG monitors. Studies have shown that medical staff can spend up to two hours-per-work shift searching for equipment. Multiple industry sources estimate that between 10% and 20% of hospital inventory is stolen or lost each year.Current solutions for tracking of assets in hospitals are based on battery-operated RFID or Bluetooth technologies. Such Real-Time Location System (RTLS) can show equipment location data. However, they suffer a large total Cost-of-Ownership (due to limited device lifetime and significant maintenance required), a lack of device interoperability and modularity (no possibility to easily upgrade the system).There is thus still reluctance within healthcare to deploy asset tracking solutions, despite the potential to save both money and lives. Installation expenses can indeed be high if the solution is not compatible with the hospital's already-existing network infrastructure and regulations. Operational costs will be also prohibitive if medical staff have to replace batteries in thousands of IoT devices.In this project, Lightricity (Oxford-based SME, spun-out from SHARP Labs) will focus on reducing overall cost-of-ownership by developing a completely autonomous (self-powered with indoor Photovoltaic cells) and modular wireless hardware solution for asset tracking and monitoring. Lightricity will demonstrate a standards-based systems which can support interoperability features with existing IoT cloud software and network infrastructures.The objectives of this project will be focussed on the development of 2 key demonstrators:* A prototype of self-powered indoor asset tracking device with general purpose real-time tracking capability.* An advanced self-powered indoor wireless monitoring device for detection of asset movements and monitoring of sensitive equipment.In the future, the developed technology will also find applicability in patient monitoring and tracing for the fight of spreading infections in hospitals and care-homes, transportation, and supply-chain management (logistics and retail).