Real-Time Location System- Awarepoint IS535ON
Curtis Austin Saturday August 13, 2011
Professor Raymond Bell

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to show how important the use of a Real time location system (RTLS) can be to hospitals. Knowing the location, status and movement of equipment and people in hospitals provides valuable information used to reduce equipment expenses and increase staff productivity. RTLS enables hospital managers the ability to increase oversight of millions of dollars’ worth of hospital-owned equipment and provides financial returns on increasing hospital-owned equipment utilization, reducing the need for excessive equipment rentals, and impacting lost, stolen or misplaced equipment. These asset tracking and management business drivers often provide the financial catalyst for getting an RTLS project approved.

Real Time Location System- Awarepoint
I. Definition
To briefly explain the technology, RTLS wirelessly tracks the location of tagged assets or individuals in real-time wherever the facility has installed coverage. While RTLS is a complex technology, it can be simplified into three basic components: 1) the T2A asset tags (figure 2) that are affixed to the piece of equipment the hospital wants to be tracked; 2) the platform, which is the infrastructure consisting of sensors that creates a zigbee mesh grid (figure 3) and network components; and 3) the end-user software application that allows the users to see the tracked assets real time location on a computer or mobile device. Most RTLS products are "active" systems rather than "passive" systems. Active simply means that the tags have a battery in them and they can send out a wireless signal saying where they are. Radio signals are the most common wireless signal