To support location-awareness independent of satellite navigation nanotron has created the swarm bee family of wireless modules. Modules are available with Chirp or UWB radio technology. All of them are sharing the common swarm API. The swarm product family targets the growing market for autonomous smart items and cuts time to market for location-aware products by 12 months. With swarm bee developers focus on application design. The talk describes the basic swarm bee module configuration and explains use cases and business applications. Dr. Thomas Foerste, VP Marketing & Sales nanotron Technologies GmbH, Berlin (Germany) joined nanotron in 2008 from LSI. Previously senior sales and marketing positions with LSI, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems. Ph.D. in Semiconductor Devices from Technical University Dresden, Germany.

1. swarm bee
location-awareness technology
GeoMonday
June, 20 2016
Thomas Förste
t.foerste@nanotron.com
© nanotron Technologies GmbH

2. Location-Awareness
In front of …
In line with …
Too far apart from …
Too close to …
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3. © nanotron Technologies GmbH GeoMondays
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Lack of Location-Awareness

4. Nature vs. Technology
The Senses: Vision, Sound, Scent, Touch,
Temperature.
Tagging: Purpose-build tagging Devices
or Smartphones.
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5. Generic Location-Awareness
swarm bee: Wireless proximity and
positioning with sensor fusion.
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Presence Detection
Context Detection
Proximity Detection
Sequence Detection
Zoning
Transition between Zones
Asset Location
Navigation

6. Smart Items
 Are autonomous.
 Feature one or more sensors.
 Are capable of wireless data
communication.
 Are location-aware.
swarm bee Modules
 Are small battery operated wireless
nodes.
 Feature acceleration and temperature
sensors.
 Are capable of wireless data
communication.
 Are location-aware.
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swarm bee modules are smart items.

7. swarm bee device
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configuration
over the air
swarm bee LE module
Acceleration + Temperature
Optional
host µC *)
Power
Antenna
*) Application code running on host µC adds intelligence to behavior of swarm bee device.

8. How does swarm bee work?
 swarm bee broadcasts advertisement blinks in an configurable interval
 Other swarm bees who receive this blinks may …
- measure the distance
- broadcast results to everyone
 Any broadcast packet contain additional information about the module like …
- Own sensor data (battery, temperature, acceleration, GPIO status)
- Alarm status
Did you know?
Each broadcast sent by a swarm bee module can be
also localized by nanotron’s TDOA system.
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4
GPIO
digital
linear
stand-aloneGPIO
Configuration and Control
over the air
Configuration and Control
by the host µC *)
How to control swarm bee modules?
*) Application code running on host µC adds intelligence to behavior of swarm bee device.

10. Technology independent swarm API
More than 60 commands allow customers to adjust swarm bee for own purposes.
 Change radio configuration
 Ranging commands
 Data communication commands
 Medium access commands
 Sensor commands
 Air interface only commands
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DK+ Development Board with swarm bee.
„The swarm bee module and its high-level
API cuts time to market by 12 months!“

11. swarm bee flavors: Chirp and UWB
Chirp – swarm bee LE
 2.4 GHz ISM, chirp technology
 10 – 500 meter range
 Data rate 1Mbps, 250kbps
 1 meter accuracy
 nanoLOC chip from nanotron
UWB – swarm bee ER
 3.5 … 6.5 GHz, UWB technology
 0 – 20 meter range
 Data rate 6,8Mbps, 850kbps, 110kbps
 10 cm accuracy
 DW1000 chip from Decawave
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swarm bee products share the same
comprehensive swarm API.

12. Location-Awareness
@Work
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13. The Business Opportunity
 Application: Combine Satellite Navigation with Location-Awareness.
 Technology: Utilize all available data for Location-Awareness.
 Business: Location-Awareness as a Service.
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Collision Avoidance

14. protect and find
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Today nanotron’s embedded location platform delivers location-
awareness for safety and productivity solutions across industrial and
consumer markets. The platform consists of chips, modules and
software that enable precise real-time positioning and concurrent
wireless communication. The ubiquitous proliferation of interoperable
location platforms is creating the location-aware Internet of Things.
www.nanotron.com