Nanotron UWB Module for Exclusion Zone Applications

nanotron Technologies, the leader in easy-to-use solutions for location-awareness today revealed key applications for its new swarm bee ER location-aware radio module. The suffix ER stands for Enhanced Resolution since the new module boasts 10 cm accuracy delivered using ultra-wide band (UWB) technology.

“The new ER module provides a compelling addition to the existing swarm bee product family line-up. It’s easy to use swarm API allows customers to very rapidly develop machine to personnel exclusion-zone applications since it supports specific requirements of this type of use-case scenarios.” commented Marcel Borwitzky, Senior Product Manager at nanotron.

The UWB module and the associated development kit will help ALL Decawave customers cutting time-to-market for their end-products by at least 12 months. Exclusion-Zone applications protect people from dangerous machines. The ER module is deployed both on the machine and on personnel tags worn by pedestrians. High-accuracy (10 cm) at short distances allows for precise alarms to be easily trigged at different zone boundaries. “Low power consumption in combination with very low latency and good scalability is the key ingredient for success in this space.” adds Borwitzky.

The new swarm bee ER module features the standard swarm API – the common high-level software interface – cutting development time and allowing customers to easily migrate existing applications from the swarm bee LE Chirp module to UWB and vice-versa depending on the use-case requirements. Chirp radio technology supports long-range applications of several hundred meters with precision requirements of 1 meter while UWB technology allows for 10 cm precision in closer proximity.

The new swarm bee ER development kit plus (DK+) - following standard tooling for swarm bee modules - provides a proven software and hardware platform for application development and comprises of several DK+ boards, swarm PC tools, and a comprehensive data package to facilitate easy and rapid development of location-aware applications. Customers benefit from swarm tools including a node configuration device (NCD) boosting productivity if large numbers of radio nodes require configuration as part of network set-up and maintenance. Additional development boards are purchased separately if customers want to evaluate or deploy larger location-aware networks.

Both the swarm bee ER UWB module and the swarm bee ER DK+ UWB development kit start shipping in volume now.