FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Company

Why Pozyx?

Pozyx delivers real-time location solutions for indoor and outdoor. The platform combines ultra-wideband (UWB), BLE, GPS, 5G, and other tracking technologies for full visibility on all tracked assets. Pozyx has been in business since 2015 and has over 10 years of RTLS experience. Pozyx helps to shape the industry through membership and active participation in standardization initiatives such as Omlox.

The Creator kit remains available for hobbyists and small scale university test projects.

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Does Pozyx work with (local) partners?

Yes we do.

Pozyx has a global eco-system of trusted preferred partners that each have their expertise and proven skills in specific industries, solutions and applications and geographies.

The certified and authorized partners know the Pozyx products and offering through and through, they have a trained staff and have experience to implement Pozyx RTLS projects and use cases.

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Enterprise

What do I need for positioning with the Pozyx UWB RTLS?

The Pozyx UWB RTLS consists of 3 components:

Tags, which are devices of which the position will be tracked. They send out a signal which will be used to calculate their position.
A network of anchors, which are devices mounted on fixed locations. They capture the signal from the tags and forward these signals to the gateway. Anchors are connected to a switch or the gateway using ethernet cables.
A gateway: The brains of the RTLS. This device will calculate a position based on the input it receives from the anchors.

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How much does the Pozyx UWB RTLS cost?

The cost consists out of a hardware fee for the anchors, the tags and the gateway. Volume discounts apply.
A recurring license is charged on the positioning engine and the software which covers security and stability updates and patches.
Please contact sales to obtain a detailed quote for your project.

How many anchors are required for my facility?

Pozyx UWB setups usually require one anchor per 150 – 300 m² (1500 - 3000 sqft), depending on the amount of obstructions in the facility.
Based on a floorplan layout, Pozyx can provide an accurate estimate of the required anchors needed for your project.

How long does it take to install the system?

Installing the anchors, cables and network equipment can be done by the customer or by a certified partner with experience in installing Pozyx systems. We recommend our customers to make use of one of our installation partners. On request we are glad to share all detailed information to find a suitable partner.

If performed by a Pozyx partner, up to 15-20 anchors can be installed on a single day. After all anchors are installed the commissioning of the system takes about 5 days per 100 anchors. This includes measuring out all anchors with a total station, calibration of all the anchors, configuring the system and generating a validation report to validate the final system performance.

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How many tags does a Pozyx UWB RTLS support?

The RTLS supports a virtually unlimited number of tags, it is developed for scalability and robustness. Note however that the total update rate is limited to 5000 positions per second on our standard gateway. Meaning that, if you have 5000 tags, the maximal update rate for a single tag is 1Hz. In practice, this limit will not be reached easily since the tags go into a reduced update rate when they are not moving.

For which countries is the Pozyx System certified?

The Pozyx RTLS hardware has CE, UKCA, FCC, ISED, and SRRC certifications. Click here for a full list of covered countries.

Pozyx Platform

Can I implement Pozyx's software without dedicated programmers/ developers?

Absolutely! Our customer success team is committed to getting you up and running in days or weeks (not months). Furthermore, the software has an easy-to-use interface which allows you to configure and modify almost everything through the user interface.

How much time does it take to implement the Pozyx platform?

The software itself can be set up very quickly. Our customer success team will request a floorplan of your facility which will be digitalised, which can take about a week. Connecting any existing location systems is very quickly. Typically, rolling out the positioning infrastructure itself will be the most time consuming in a project.

Do I need to use the Pozyx UWB RTLS for the Platform?

No, it is not required to utilize the Pozyx UWB Real-time Location system (RTLS). Any RTLS can be integrated in the Platform. In case the RTLS is Omlox Hub compatible, integration will be seamless. If this is not the case, a small middleware needs to be created to facilitate the integration. Pozyx can help here.

What is a digital twin?

In the context of the Pozyx platform, the digital twin is your collection trackable assets. You can configure different trackable models with different sets of properties. These properties can then be synchronised with an external system such as an ERP or MES such that they are always up to date.

What is the Omlox Hub?

The Omlox hub is a technology standard defined by the international PI organisation. It enables interoperability and flexibility across different locating technologies, such as UWB, RFID, 5G, BLE, Wi-Fi, and GPS. Locating technologies can be integrated with ease, irrespective of the underlying vendor - allowing for uniform utilization of location data in a broad spectrum of applications.

The Pozyx Platform contains an Omlox hub.

Can the software integrate with third-party software and tools?

Absolutely! The Pozyx platform exposes some standardised API's according to the Omlox Hub standard which can be used by other systems. Furthermore, a set of middlewares are available to connect the Pozyx platform with third-party software.

How much does it cost?

The software is provided as a Software as a Service (SaaS) with a recurring yearly license fee. Please contact sales to receive a detailed quote for your project.

Creator

What do I need for positioning in the Creator kit?

Tags, which are devices of which the position will be tracked.
A network of anchors, which are devices mounted on fixed locations. They communicate with the tags and allow them to calculate their position.
A computer / Raspberry Pi / Arduino, this device will control the RTLS

Note that you can use either our Creator controller, which is a full visual interface, or work code based in Python/Arduino. For the usage of the creator controller an internet connection is also required.

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How many tags and anchors does a Creator Pozyx system support?

With a Creator kit, you can easily track multiple tags simultaneously. Keep in mind that more tags will result in a lower update rate per tag. In the Creator kits’ wireless TWR protocol, the update rate of max 60 Hz is divided between all tags equally. The actual update rate to divide will depend on the chosen settings and involves a trade-off between reliability and speed. For Creator setups we thus advise the use of maximum 5 tags for high update rate applications and 10 tags for low update rate applications.
The maximum number of supported anchors is 16, if you want to use more anchors we refer to our Enterprise system.

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Is Pozyx related to Arduino?

No, but our developer tags are all designed to be able to shield onto an Arduino Uno, Mega or Nano. Both Creator and Enterprise systems have applications where Arduino can be used to develop custom solutions and integrations. However, Pozyx is in no way based on Arduino and you NEVER require the use of an Arduino.

Does Pozyx work with Raspberry Pi?

Yes, in two ways. Pozyx developer tags connect to the Raspberry Pi via the included micro USB cable. On Raspberry Pi Creator setups, you can simply use our Python library to read out the tag’s position or for advanced custom development. Another alternative in both Creator and Enterprise setups is to simply use a micro USB cable from the Raspberry Pi to power the tag and access the tag’s position via our local cloud MQTT API. A Raspberry Pi can also be used to customize the payload of the UWB message and custom sensor data so other data could be sent from a tag to the positioning server.

On which Arduino boards can the developer tag shield?

Pozyx developer tags are standalone hardware and do not need an Arduino to operate, nor are they based in any way on Arduino. For the majority of applications the best practice is to use our MQTT API rather than a library. However for some cases, the use of an Arduino with our Arduino library provides the ability for advanced customization. Pozyx developer tags can therefore shield to the Arduino Uno, Mega, and Nano. We have extensive documentation that explains the usage of the Arduino library in more detail on our Arduino Library documentation and our documentation.

Technology

What technology does Pozyx use?

The Pozyx hardware is based on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology for indoor positioning. UWB is a technology specifically designed for transmitting information across a wide bandwidth. Using a large channel bandwidth with short pulses, UWB signals can be captured with high precision. This makes the signal very robust and makes UWB especially well-suited for ultra-accurate positioning (precision up to 10cm).

The Pozyx Platform can receive information from multiple location technologies, and combine them to actionable real-time location information.

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What positioning techniques does Pozyx support?

The Pozyx Enterprise system supports TDOA. The Pozyx Creator system supports wireless TWR (two-way ranging. The development of a high performance wired TWR, inverse TDOA, AOA, hybrids and more is ongoing. Contact sales@pozyx.io if you are looking for specific information on this topic.

What is the accuracy of UWB?

The accuracy of Pozyx is 10 cm in line-of-sight (LOS) conditions. In non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions, the accuracy tends to vary between 10 and 30 cm, depending on the type and amount of material that is obstructing the signal. To acquire accurate tracking a minimum of 4 anchors is required for 2D positioning and at least 6 anchors placed at varying heights is recommended for 3D positioning. Adding more anchors will increase the robustness of the system in case of obstruction and will allow to cover larger areas.

Does Pozyx work indoor and outdoors?

The current Pozyx hardware is based on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology which works both indoor and outdoor. However, UWB is focused on indoor applications. The Pozyx Platform pulls in information from other RTLS technologies such as WiFi, GPS, RFID, 5G, and BLE. This way it becomes possible to seamlessly switch between indoor real-time positioning and worldwide outdoor tracking.

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What do I need for indoor positioning?

Positioning is always defined relative to fixed infrastructure elements (anchors). Any setup needs a minimum of 4 anchors to do accurate positioning. Tags are placed on the objects to be tracked and positioned. Enterprise kits contain all elements required to kick-off an RTLS solution, including a pre-configured positioning server.

What are anchors? What are tags?

Pozyx positioning solutions always consist of at least two parts: anchors and tags. Anchors are modules with a fixed and known position. Tags are the devices that can move around freely and whose position you want to know. Anchors are always static (their relative position towards other anchors stays the same) and tags are dynamic. The anchors can be compared to the satellites in GPS positioning. The tags can be seen in the same analogy as the GPS system in your car.

What is the range of the Pozyx UWB RTLS system?

The maximal theoretical range of the UWB signal depends on the configured transmit power level. However, in practice the range of the system is also influenced by external factors such as line-of-sight conditions (LOS), obstruction type etc. Taking the legal power levels in mind, Pozyx setups usually require one anchor per 150 – 300 m².

Does Pozyx interfere with Bluetooth or other RF technologies?

The UWB signal will always be lower than the noise level of other RF technologies in the same spectrum, which means it will never interfere. Thanks to the large bandwidth, data can still be transmitted and received correctly even at these low power levels.

What batteries does the Pozyx UWB RTLS system use?

Enterprise Anchors can be powered with PoE+ or with the DC jack and the included power adapter. They cannot be battery powered.

Industrial tags are powered with a CR2477 coin cell, which is a replaceable battery of 3 V and 1000 mAh.

Wearable tags are powered with a CR2450 coin cell, which is a replaceable battery of 3V and 600 mAh.

The developer tags used in both the Enterprise and Creator systems come delivered with a 1200 mAh powerbank. In Enterprise mode they use between 0.1 and 10 mAh.

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What is omlox

omlox is an open standard for precise real-time indoor locating system. The focus of omlox is to define open interfaces for an interoperable locating system. omlox enables various industries to use a single infrastructure with different applications from different providers.

Pozyx supports the Omlox Hub standard with the technology agnostic Pozyx Platform.

What is the update rate of Pozyx?

Our Enterprise System is built for performance and supports a total (over all tags) update rate of up to 2200 Hz. For example, 220 tags that give positions at a rate of 10 updates per second (10 Hz) or alternatively a total of 2200 tags positioning at 1 Hz update rate. The Creator System supports an update rate of up to 60 Hz (over all tags).

RTLS Solutions

Industry 4.0