u-blox Unveils Two AoA Explorer Kits
AoA-based triangulation Bluetooth direction finding
Provides sub-meter level indoor location tracking accuracy


u-blox announced today the launch of two 'explorer kits' designed to evaluate the potential of Bluetooth direction finding and high-precision indoor positioning technologies.

Designed for low power, convenience, and low cost, the 'XPLR-AOA-1 and XPLR-AOA-2' Explorer Kits allow developers to test location tracking capabilities for a variety of applications, including access control, collision detection, smart devices, indoor location tracking, and asset tracking.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology has solved the problem of tracking the location of people and assets outdoors. However, it has yet to achieve this in indoor environments such as logistics warehouses. To address the growing demand for high-accuracy indoor positioning solutions, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced Bluetooth direction finding technology, a replacement for existing received signal strength (RSSI)-based solutions.

Bluetooth direction finding determines the direction in which a wireless signal travels from a mobile tag to one or more fixed anchor points. An anchor point, consisting of an antenna array connected to a Bluetooth receiver using Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) technology, detects the direction or angle of a mobile tag transmitting a Bluetooth signal. Once a multi-antenna anchor cluster is formed, the location of a mobile device or tag can be precisely determined using triangulation.

The two kits from u-blox are Bluetooth-based tag-to-cloud tracking solutions that deliver reliable sub-meter positioning accuracy in indoor environments.

XPLR-AOA-1 consists of the u-blox C211 antenna board, the u-blox C209 tag, and related software, providing the elements needed to evaluate AoA technology. XPLR-AOA-2 consists of four C211 antenna boards, four C209 tags, and the software needed to apply AoA technology to various devices.

Both kits use the u-blox NINA-B4 Bluetooth 5.1 low energy module, which features the nRF52833 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) SoC. The u-blox u-connectLocate software, running on the embedded MCU with the Nordic SoC, calculates the angle of the incoming signal without any additional processing. The XPLR-AOA-2 kit also comes with positioning engine software that triangulates the tag's location.

To provide more avenues for use, u-blox has partnered with Traxmate, whose enterprise asset tracking platform is supported by XPLR-AOA-2. This platform creates a building with a tracking environment, supports floor plan uploads, and anchor point placement, providing a cloud-based tracking system that requires no hardware knowledge. Users can track the location of assets in real time via the web or smartphone app.