BLE Locator

BLE Locator is a MeshCube plugin developed to cover the need of real time tracking of the forklifts in industrial environments.
A mesh network of battery-powered Bluetooth beacons is used to estimate the position of the moving forklift using advanced positioning algorithms.

BLE Locator components

In the table below are listed the components needed for the proper BLE Locator functioning.

Component	Image
MeshCube instance
Wirepas Mesh Anchors
BLE Locator plugin
TinyGateway WiFi BLE
Forte+ BLE used as motion sensor

BLE Locator architecture

In the image below is represented the architecture of the BLE Locator solution.
The fixed battery-powered devices are Wirepas anchors with iBeacon beaconing enabled.
On the forklift is installed the TinyGateway WiFi BLE, powered by the forklift main battery and connected to the local WiFi network.
Together with the BLE Gateway, on the forklift is also installed the Forte+ BLE beacon, necessary to work as motion sensor to detect the forklift's movement.

Setup

The plugin can be installed on a new MeshCube installation or on an existing one.
For the first setup of MershCube please refer to MeshCube First start guide.

In the following are described the steps for the setup of BLE Locator plugin.

Step 1: Plugin setup

In MeshCube Web interface, the configuration of the BLE Locator plugin can be found in Plugin section.
Here, make sure that the MQTT Broker is correctly selected. It is needed for the communication between the MeshCube instance and the TinyGateway BLE installed on the forklift.
The Broker can be the same used for the Sink communication or a different one, chosen among the Broker configured in system settings.

Step 2: Beaconing setup

For the proper real time forklift localization, the mesh anchors have to be configured with iBeacon Beaconing enabled.
The configuration can be set in Network configuration section. In the corresponding anchors configuration, enable the iBeacon beaconing and save the configuration.

Once that all the anchors have been configured, they will start to appear in the BLE Locators -> BLE Anchors section.

To be able to track the forklift movement on the map, upload the map and place the anchors on the map in positions corresponding to the real installation.

Step 3: BLE Gateway setup

The BLE gateway is the core device in the BLE Locator solution. The BLE gateway is installed on the forklift and powered by the forklift's battery.
Together with the gateway, also the Forte+ beacon has to be installed on the forklift. It is needed as motion sensor to detect when the forklift is moving.

For the installation and setup of the gateway refer to TinyGateway WiFi guide.
The configuration parameters to setup vary based on the 2 cases below.

Note: the BLE Scan section is already configured to scan for standard BlueUp iBeacon UUID and for the custom UUID setup on the Forte+ motion sensor.
In case you have beacon anchors with a different UUID please make sure you modify this filter, while keeping the Forte+ motion sensor filter unchanged.

1. TinyGateway BLE in the same local network as the MeshCube server.
   This is the most simple use case. When accessing the TinyGateway Web interface, the only configuration to setup is the WiFi connection to the local network.
   

Once that the gateway is connected to the local WiFi, the gateway has to be connected to MeshCube.
In MeshCube go to section BLE Locator -> BLE Trackers. In the upper right corner press on button that will trigger a BLE Gateway search in the local network. When you identify the BLE Gateway installed on the forklift press on connect button. This operation will automatically connect the gateway to MeshCube, that will appear in a couple of minutes, after gateway reboot.

2. TinyGateway BLE and the MeshCube server are in different networks.
In some cases, the MeshCube is installed on a Cloud server and thus the gateway and MeshCube are not in the same physical network. The connection procedure described at the previous point will fail when scanning gateways in the network.
To connect the BLE gateway to the MeshCube it is necessary to manually configure the MQTT Broker used for the communication between the gateway and the software.
In the gateway web interface, together with the WiFi connection, you have to
- configure the MQTT Broker
- enable MQTT in Transport section

Step 4: Forklift tracking

Once that the BLE gateway is configured and connected to the MeshCube instance, if also the map and anchors on the map are present, when the forklift starts moving, its position will be calculated and displayed on the map.