Current UWB positioning technology is not considered particularly complex; many companies wishing to develop their own proprietary positioning systems would likely be capable of doing so. Furthermore, finished positioning systems are already available for purchase on the market.
So, why should you choose us?
There are several key reasons:
- Cost: In-house development entails significant costs. You would need to assemble a technical team comprising hardware engineers, embedded systems engineers, and PC-side front-end and back-end developers. The personnel costs for such a team over just a few months would easily exceed the cost of purchasing our complete technical solution.
- Time: Even with a fully staffed team, developing a proprietary system would take at least several months just to produce a functional prototype. However, fully productizing the system—taking it from a prototype to a market-ready product—requires far more than just a few months.
- Risk: There is also the possibility that, after spending months of time and a substantial amount of money, the results produced by your team may not meet your expectations.
Qorvo (Decawave), the original manufacturer, provides sample code for the DW1000 and DW3000 chips, as well as demonstration systems that closely resemble finished products. These resources significantly lower the barrier to entry for development. Consequently, many companies have used these resources as a foundation to develop their own UWB positioning systems.
However, creating a system capable of performing positioning is a fundamentally different task from creating a system that is operationally viable in a real-world engineering environment. For a laboratory-based system, simply achieving distance measurement between two Anchors—or measuring distances among several Anchors—and applying a trilateration algorithm is often sufficient to demonstrate a basic UWB positioning system using TWR (TOF) technology. (Of course, if you opt for TDOA positioning, you would also need to research and implement time synchronization techniques, which adds a layer of complexity.) Yet, the moment the system becomes capable of performing positioning, the real work has only just begun. There remains a vast amount of engineering and productization work to be done. Here are just a few examples:
Online Firmware Updates: It is highly probable that, over time, your team will achieve technical breakthroughs—such as developing new optimization algorithms—or discover bugs within the existing firmware. In short, the firmware on the deployed Anchors will inevitably require updating. Sending engineers into the field with MCU programmers to manually update firmware is highly impractical and also poses a significant risk of firmware leakage. Therefore, your technical team must develop a robust process for online firmware updates, enabling the secure, encrypted delivery of updated firmware to the Anchor hardware deployed in the field.
Impact of Large-Scale Anchor Deployment: If a system consists of only a few Anchors, it is likely being used solely for testing within a laboratory environment. At a client site, there are typically dozens—or even thousands—of anchors deployed. How does your positioning system perform in an environment of this scale?
Engineering Challenges: Some issues are difficult to anticipate during the development phase. For instance, anchors are typically designed with LED indicators—such as power status lights and transmission/reception indicators—which is a standard design practice. However, we received feedback from a client that, at night, these LEDs on the anchors caused light pollution. Consequently, we have incorporated LED control mechanisms into all our subsequent hardware revisions, allowing users to adjust the brightness of the indicator lights. Another example involves multiple instances where clients requested technical support, reporting that the system was inaccurate and the output coordinates were erratic. Upon investigation, we discovered that the anchors had been mixed up: an anchor intended for position X had actually been installed at position Y, while a different anchor had been installed at position X. Because the number of anchors requiring installation at a site is often substantial—unlike with security cameras, where one can simply check the video feed to verify correct placement—we have added a high-brightness LED identifier light to our hardware. This identifier can be toggled on or off via a configuration utility, enabling on-site deployment engineers to easily verify the specific installation location of each individual anchor.
It is highly probable that you, too, will eventually encounter the very same pitfalls we have already navigated.
By choosing our technical solution, you can rapidly transition into full-scale production, saving both time and costs while effectively mitigating potential risks.
