Questions with Jeff Snyder

1. What technology stands behind a Real-Time Locating System (RTLS)?
RTLS stands for Real-Time Locating System and refers to a system or application that precisely determines the immediate location of an object or person. This technology is used to locate and manage any assets inside or outside of a facility. The data can be used in many ways depending on the use case application. The main goal is to gain complete visibility on the plant floor, optimize processes, increase productivity, and establish a safe and secure working environment. RTLS allows for smarter decisions with better data.

2. What is the difference between radio-frequency identification (RFID) and RTLS?
RFID uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify, and track tags that are attached to objects. It detects an asset and determines the time when it passes a certain read point. In addition, SIMATIC RTLS can locate an object or person in real time at all times. Importantly, these solutions can provide a critical temporal dimension to production digital twins of modern, self-organizing factories of the future that pinpoint "what-and-who-is-where" in real time.

3. What components are part of a RTLS system?
An RTLS system usually consists for a few basic components: a transponder, gateway (reader) and software. Transponders are fitted to workpieces, robots, vehicles, etc., and transmit a wireless signal at defined intervals. They can also be equipped with data interfaces and transmit location details directly to the local control system or make them accessible for higher-level systems. Gateways are fix reference points in the local infrastructure for real-time locating with an accuracy measured in inches. They record the transponder signals and give them a fixed position stamp. The positioning data is bundled and transmitted to the locating server. The software system calculates the real-time position of the individual transponders and passes the details on to the higher-level systems via defined interfaces. Siemens SIMATIC RTLS offers several software options depending on the use case application. The basic locating and configuration software (SIMATIC locating manager) calculates the position of each transponder by a method called Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) or Time of Flight. Accuracy can be increased even further using flanking measures such as the automatic correlation of RTLS position data with the 3D model of the production environment as stored in the digital twin. 

4. What are typical RTLS applications?
In the smart factory of the future, RTLS solutions can supply the essential foundation for use in intelligent production units, involving the cooperation of different production facilities, such as transport vehicles and mobile robots with machines and plants. Simultaneously, the actual location of a machine, robot, AGV, or individual tools will become a variable factor. This means that an autonomously controlled, highly efficient workflow can be organized with the knowledge of the factory's current spatial configuration and all its moving parts as well as its people.

Specifically, this means that:

• Tool use can be documented through identification of, for example, a tightened screw by means of the X-Y-Z position in comparison with the 3D virtual twin model. This information can be saved in a product database together with the relevant tool data, such as torque and data used.
• Removal of materials from storage systems can be monitored to ensure the correct use of parts.
• It is possible to control the assembly of large products (e.g., aggregates, power drives, special machines, and airplane parts) in which the use of other identification technologies is technically or economically problematic due to the product structure.
• Automatic inventory monitoring and thus the optimization for production aids, such as containers, mesh pallets, and tools, can be performed.
• Position monitoring for finished products can be done to minimize search processes when products are stored temporarily due to disruptions in the production sequence, missing parts, failures, or other issues.
• Dynamic self-organization of production processes takes place whereby the products are automatically transported to the next available transporting station by AGVs.
• Establishment of a safer work environment with social distancing and contact tracing
  

Siemens Industry Inc.