Safety while avoiding unnecessary alerts with dynamic warning

One of the features that makes the solution unique is the dynamic warning capabilities of the beacon which is installed on, for instance, the forklift. With this feature we are able to minimize false warnings resulting in an environment where employees are happy to have the Lopos solution.

What is dynamic warning?

Dynamic warning means that the warning range of the (forklift) beacon expands in the direction that the operator drives. Moreover, the greater the speed of the vehicle, the further the warning range extends. By doing so Lopos also takes the braking distance into account, resulting in more time for the operator to react.

Why dynamic warning?

The balance between having a warning area that is big enough to account for braking distance at high speeds and avoiding false alerts as much as possible is challenging.

A fixed warning distance would mean that there’s a circular warning area around the vehicle. The warning distance would be the same when standing still or moving. This would cause a lot of false positives when the device is standing still or moving slowly.

Depending on the layout of the warehouse a circular warning area with a big radius could also trigger false positives in neighbouring racks, as you can see in the image.

That’s why we developed dynamic warnings. Thanks to our blindingly fast range measurements – up to 500 measurements per second – one beacon can track all close by beacons and wearables up to 30m or 100ft in real time and derive precise braking distances per device.

Our dynamic ranging starts from a small circular warning area when the vehicle is stationary. When the vehicle is moving, the warning range will be transformed dynamically to include the changing braking distance. The warning range only increases in the direction the vehicle is driving. The greater the speed of the forklift, the greater the warning range, minimizing false warnings while accounting for sufficient braking distance.

What is so special about it?

Implementing high-speed ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging on our small and lightweight (33g or 1,2 oz) wearables and having a one-week battery life requires extreme efficiency at the hardware and firmware levels. This in combination with the configurability of our devices makes our solution unique.

How were we able to implement this?

Hard work, a great team, our patented communication stack, and 8 years of experience have made this amazing feature possible.

PS: At Lopos we call our dynamic warning shape the “potato shape”, if you’re reading this and you can think of a better name, let us know :).

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