
SLAMcore adds vision to RTLS Real-Time Location Systems
UK positioning technology developer SLAMcore has launched a system to add visual data to Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) in manual industrial vehicles.
SLAMcore Aware is a combination of a stereo camera, processor and software to improves the accuracy, robustness and scalability of 3D localization data for tracking intralogistics vehicles.
It uses visual data to provide real-time data on the exact position and orientation of manually driven vehicles and scales easily across large and complex, ever-changing industrial and warehouse sites.
Using stereo cameras and advanced algorithms the SLAMcore Aware module automatically calculates the location of the vehicle it is fitted to and then begins to create a map of the facility as the vehicle moves around. Changes to layout, position of vehicles, goods and people are automatically noted even in rapidly changing environments.
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The system combines the SLAMcore simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) SDK with industrial grade hardware for fast installation on intralogistics vehicles and seamless integration with new and existing Real Time Location Systems (RTLS). SLAMcore Aware uses the AI system to perceive and classify people and other vehicles, feeding this to the RTLS applications to significantly improve efficiency and safety of operations.
By bringing this advanced visual-spatial intelligence to manual vehicles, it provides robust estimation of location and orientation of important assets with centimetre-scale precision.
This avoids the need for multiple receiver antennas across facilities to provide ‘line of sight’ connectivity that are costly and become more expensive as facilities scale. Large and complex sites require potentially hundreds of antennas to track even a handful of vehicles. Even with this expensive infrastructure, coverage is often patchy leading to unreliable, inaccurate and missing data on real-time location of vehicles, reducing the effectiveness of RTLS and intralogistics management solutions.
Instead the visual intelligence in SLAMcore Aware scales in line with the number of vehicles deployed, irrespective of the areas they must cover, or the complexity of internal layouts. As new vehicles are added to the fleet, an additional module can be simply fitted to each one so that every vehicle automatically and continuously determines its location wherever it is across the whole site.
Visual spatial intelligence data is processed ‘at the edge’ on-board the vehicle. Position and orientation data is shared via a lightweight and flexible API for use in virtually any route planning, analytics and optimization platform. SLAMcore Aware allows RTLS to adapt and scale in ever-changing, complex intralogistics environments without compromising on performance.
“Prospective customers tell us that they are looking for a fast-to-deploy and scalable method that will provide the location data they desperately need to optimize warehouse and factory intralogistics for speed and safety. SLAMcore Aware marks a significant leap forward in intralogistics management bringing the power of visual spatial awareness to almost any vehicle in a way that is scalable and can cope with the highly dynamic and complex environments inside today’s factories and warehouses,” said Owen Nicholson, CEO of SLAMcore.
www.slamcore.com/products/slamcore-aware/
