Solar Asset Tracking Solution for Indoor and Outdoor Application

I&T Wish Solar Asset Tracking Solution for Indoor and Outdoor Application
(REF: W-0323)
Matched I&T Solution
Trial Project
Summary and Challenges Tracking solution are emerging for smart asset management, however, market available solutions had involved different aspects of technical challenges, including:
  1. frequent battery replacement needed for accurate position,
  2. insufficient sunlight to power-up PV panels for indoor use case,
  3. single technology cannot localize assets for both indoor and outdoor, etc.
Therefore, this project aims to explore and evaluate how cutting edge indoor energy harvesting technology can help increase sensor lifetime, to be adopted in asset tracking solution for both indoor and outdoor.
Expected Outcome The proposed project is expected to achieve the following outcomes: -Provision of necessary software and hardware to demonstrate how energy harvesting solution can improve indoor and outdoor asset tracking application with characteristics below:
  1. Provide a good positioning accuracy (indoor <1m and outdoor <10m);
  2. Battery lifetime shall exceed 1 year without battery replacement for typical indoor and/or outdoor asset tracking purposes, with reasonable range and latency;
  3. Features energy harvesting module (e.g. solar panel) and energy storage device (e.g. super-capacitor, rechargeable battery) to harvest energy in both indoor and outdoor environment
  4. Features adaptive program (e.g. varying sampling frequency) based on asset and user activity to reduce energy consumption;
  5. Provide asset position and sensor health status via LoRaWAN;
  6. Compact in size, light in weight
  7. Suitable for indoor and outdoor use, with high demand in water-resistant and dust-free device protection (IP68)
Expected Trial Duration 9-month duration:

  • STAGE 1 – Prototyping & Design Evaluation
    • Demonstrate features for asset tracking (indoor and outdoor)
    • Demonstrate features for energy saving
    • Setup necessary software and user interface for result evaluation
    • Setup backhaul communication with EMSD’s network
    • Comparison against other asset tracking solution
  • STAGE 2 – Field Testing - Indoor application
    • Robot Tracking (e.g. drone / delivery robot)
    • Outdoor application – Skip / Container Tracking
  • STAGE 3 – Design Enhancement
    • Further improvement in positioning accuracy
    • Further improvement in device battery lifetime
Contact Information
I&T Wish Proposer:Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD)
Contact Person:Mr CHAN Tze Chun
Position:Electronics Engineer/Building Information Modelling/2
Tel:31553953
Email: chantzechun@emsd.gov.hk
Upload Date 2020-10-06
Closing Date 2020-10-20
Propose I&T Solution Closed