Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 6770; President & CEO:
Toshihiro Kuriyama) will commence supply of a High-Accuracy Positioning
System Evaluation Kit employing a Bluetooth® Low Energy chip in
November 2020 in recognition of heightened positioning needs.
There is a growing demand for high-accuracy positioning
systems in the Internet of Things (IoT), the automotive industry, and a
wide range of other sectors, including production and logistics. In the
automotive industry, alongside personal recognition, the ability to
pinpoint the location of a device is essential for enabling
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) offerings, such as smartphone-based digital
keys. However, positioning has often come with issues relating to
practicality and the burden on development resources – for example,
requirements for physical scanning using barcodes or IC tags, or
development of high-end systems employing GPS and Wi-Fi®.
In responding to these issues, Alps Alpine has taken steps
to commercialize positioning modules using sub-GHz bands, including its
Long-Lifetime Asset Tracker for logistics operations. The company is
currently pursuing additional development of high-accuracy positioning
technology employing a Bluetooth® Low Energy chip, aiming for
commercialization and a start to mass production during 2021.
In advance of this, Alps Alpine has developed an evaluation
kit for use with a high-accuracy positioning system. The kit will be
available November 2020. Alps Alpine’s high-accuracy positioning
technology employs an original position detection algorithm developed by
American firm Greina Technologies, Inc. (RF Ranging, Inc.1). Alps Alpine
acquired Greina Technologies in May 2018. The system achieves high -
accuracy positioning due to being able to measure angle of arrival (AoA)
and time of arrival (ToA) simultaneously. Positioning employs a
Bluetooth® Low Energy chip that has been adopted widely in the
market, enabling easy data communication with existing systems that
already use Bluetooth®. The system therefore has excellent
potential for implementation in society. Furthermore, the chip inside
the development kit is an NXP Semiconductors KW38 Wireless
Microcontroller, which has been extensively deployed within automotive,
consumer electronics and industrial equipment sectors and boasts
excellent security performance. Positioning and Bluetooth® Low
Energy communication need only a single chip. Under the
Bluetooth® 5.1 specification, the angle of arrival (AoA) option
is already standard. Through participation in the
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)2, Alps Alpine is currently
pursuing standardization of time of arrival and ranging technology with
greater security.
By quickly establishing high - accuracy positioning
technology and supplying the evaluation kit to the market, Alps Alpine
is looking to heighten added value for finished products while
contributing to a user experience that brings safety, peace of mind and
outstanding usability to automotive and energy, healthcare and industry
(EHI) markets.
*1
RF Ranging, Inc. is a sales company for Greina Technologies, Inc.
*2
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a standardization
body supervising Bluetooth® specification development,
Bluetooth® technology and trademark licensing to manufacturers.
<System Configuration>
Features
Original AoA/ToA algorithm enables compact, high-accuracy positioning
-
Positioning and data communication employ a highly versatile
Bluetooth® Low Energy chip
- Positioning using tags possible with a minimum 1 anchor
-
Internal Bluetooth® Low Energy stack allows position
measurements and data communication
Principal Applications
Automotive market: Smart Electronic Key, digital keys
Industrial market: Production systems, conveyance systems (e.g.
transfer robots, movable warehouse assets)
Specifications
Product name |
High-Accuracy Positioning System Evaluation Kit
|
Supplied system units |
2 anchors and 1 tag (standard) *Additional anchors and tags can be connected
|
Maximum ranging distance |
140m (in line of sight) |
Detection accuracy |
±30cm (in line of sight) *Ranging accuracy with 1-anchor system
|
Power supply |
Anchor: 5V (via USB) |
Interface |
USB(UART) |
Bluetooth® |
Bluetooth® Low Energy 5.0-compliant Custom profile
|
Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.
On January 1, 2019, Alps Electric Co., Ltd. and Alpine
Electronics, Inc. integrated their businesses and started out afresh
as Alps Alpine Co., Ltd with 42,289 employees. Alps Alpine will
steadily bring about synergies by drawing on the two companies'
advantages in core devices, system design and software development.
The new company will endeavour to create its own unique value for not
only the automotive market, but also mobile devices and consumer
electronics, as well as new sectors such as energy, healthcare and
industry. For more information please visit www.alpsalpine.com
Alps Alpine Europe GmbH
Alps Alpine Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of Alps Alpine Co.,
Ltd., was established in 1979. Since 2013 the European Head Office has
been located in Munich and as such co-ordinates the Sales, Marketing
and Product Engineering activities of our offices in Dusseldorf,
Paris, Milton Keynes, Coventry, Gothenburg, Frolunda and Milan, as
well as the production activities of our manufacturing site in
Dortmund. Alps Electric Europe GmbH changed its name on 01.04.2020 to
Alps Alpine Europe GmbH.