Seamless personnel tracking solution to monitor users’ location information through deployment of Lora based IoT technology

This project delivers a seamless personnel tracking solution to monitor users’ location information through deployment of Lora based IoT technology. EMSD provides locations required to implement the solution. By incorporate with the real time location data from the end user wearable device, data visualization platform is developed to indicate the location information of user with geofencing alerts. It opens the possibilities for further application in quarantine, SOS service and health risk alerts.

The whole project aims to act as a proof-of-concept trial for further development of IoT applications in health care industry. It empowers various government departments to perform risk management by visualizing the user location and other health-related details for high-risk members of public. This report captures the interim outcome and performance of the smart personnel tracking system deployed by eKoutone Communications Limited.

 

 

Target Deliverables

 

The personnel tracking solution should provide the following features,

  • Hardware

By integrating the LoRa and GPS technology, the wristband should collect users’ live location data with high accuracy. It should gather various health information and transmit to dashboard through the LoRa gateway. The battery life should last for at least seven days.

Software

A software platform with graphical user interface (GUI) for health data visualization. The dashboard will display live locations with user’s heartbeat and/or SOS alarm within a geofence. 

Project Description

eKoutone Communications Ltd supply, install and deploy an end to end Smart Personnel Tracking System for both indoor and outdoor locations for Health Caring Services. The smart wrist-band tracker and BLE beacons are deployed and integrated with EMSD GWIN which includes LoraWan Gateways (RAK), LoraWan Network Server (using EMSD existing ChirpStack LNS), Application (including Dashboard). Specific custom development will be made on the dashboard. The following list of hardware components are supplied and deployed in this project:.

Appliance

Description

Smart Wristband Tracker

Smart wristband tracker is based on LoRaWAN communication. Build in GNSS and Bluetooth module, can achieve indoor and outdoor real-time positioning. With wearing detection, it can detect user’s locations in near real-time manner.

LoRa Gateway

The location data from the wristband will be transmitted via the Lora Gateway to the backend data visualization platform via 4G

Auxiliary Devices for Positioning (Beacons)

Beacons are installed on various indoor locations on EMSD 4/F InnoZone and 6/F office area. The Wristband tracker will calculate the indoor location based on the iBeacon signals (BLE) broadcasted by the Beacons.

In addition to deploying new beacons, existing beacons installed in 4/F and 6/F can also be utilized for location tracking.

Data Visualization Platform (dashboard)

The dashboard displays the wristband location data and other indicators onto a digital map via a web interface. Geo-fencing can be applied so alarms will be display on the GUI interface when the tracker is out of the defined virtual fences.

 

The following graph demonstrates the system architecture

The Tracking system should perform the following function to collect information for the client side:

  1. The tracking system should provide near real-time location information of the user for both indoor and outdoor locations and apply the geo-fencing feature.
  2. The tracking system should monitor the user data such as heartbeat and wear/non-wear status.
  • The tracking system should monitor the battery Life for different IoT devices.
  1. The tracking system should be able to transmit SOS signal when the user is in emergency.
  2. All the information is presented on a GUI based Data Visualization Platform (Dashboard) to transform numerical data into meaningful floorplan (indoor) or map (outdoor). System administrator defined geofencing feature is implemented to show alert on the dashboard when the user is out-of-fenced-area.