NL1043505B1 - Method of tracking, monitoring tracking system and tracker - Google Patents

Abstract

19 UITTREKSEL The present invention relates to a method, system and node for tracking an object, using long wave radio transmission, in which an object is provided with a 5 device provided with a long wave radio (LoRa) node, a GPS module and/or electronic means for long wave radio gateway identification, in which the object is programmed to periodically leave a stand by mode for determining and transmitting its position to a network relaying the position information to a position registering computer S. The node is provided with a Wifi protocol stack for scanning Wifi information utilized for in 10 position information when GPS signa! is absent such as in indoor situations. Alternatively and additionally, the method may utilise LoRa gateway information for position determining. 1043505

Description

METHOD OF TRACKING, MONITORING TRACKING SYSTEM AND TRACKER The present invention relates to a method of tracking devices, in particular displaceable devices, a tracking monitoring system and a tracker or tracking devise, 8 Now tracking devices and systems are commonly know per se, Many of these know systems are GPS based, meaning that they may nol always be operable within buildings.

While this circumstance does not necessarily hamper many public applications, it yet at least commercially is regarded a disadvantage when it comes fo finding objects that are generally stored more or less deep within buildings where GPS may not be contacted.

Other tracking systems are also known amongst which systems using telephone masts.

Other, somewhat less widely known systems utilise the so- called long range radio transmitter system (LoRa). The LoRa system is maintained by a communications provider, eg. a national 1§ telephone and communications company or Institute and in practice forms a so called Wide Area Network (WAN). Very often § not mostly provided as a so-called open network service to the public, but it may equally be set up as a closed network.

While the bandwidth offered by LoraWan ís very low compared to internet, it may communicate relatively easily with wireless devices, the range per radio mast may extend up to fifteen kilometres and the power consumption of the involved tracker may be relatively low.

This information may also be taken from public articles such as "Wat is Lora eigenlijk", 8.0, published at https://www. computable nl/artikel/opinie/mobiRy/S776778/1509029/watis-lora- eigenlijk. himl, on June 13, 2016. The article mentions various potential applications amongst which tracing a bicycle.

Specific information as to the nature of the LoRa network may e.g. be taken from the leafle! "Lora van KPN - Connectiviteit voor Internet of Things", a.0. published at https. //docplayer.nl/27 14887 3-Lora~-van-kpn-connectiviteit- voor-internet-of-things. html, ft is known that also with the LoraWan so-called geolocation may be performed, 8.9. fom the business web-site núps:/zakelijkforum.kpn. conviora-forum-15/ora- geolocation-8555/index3. html, where the latest.

The LoRa communications provider, by way of Rick 8, 7 months ago from 10 sept, 2018 advises to utilise geolocation only for outdoor applications.

Incidentally, the provider further explains that accuracy for geolocating static objects is GO meters, A close prior art publication may be viewed in the form of patent publication FR3043288 disclosing conventional triangdation in conjunction with equipping part of the vehicles of a fleet with antennas, using the engine for power the same, thus favourably creating extension of coverage in an area where the Heet operates.

The publication does not deal with a.o. passive devices, nor methods of passively assessing environment information per se, nor in the manner as & proposed by the presently claimed invention.

The present invention sets out to yet satisfactorily provide a solution to this apparently widely Telt, yet commercially most relevant problem of indoor tracking of objects, in particular a fleet of objects as is typically commercially or industrially operated, mors in particular in an economic yet reliable manner.

The invention also has for an object to secure that power consumption remains low and that the tracking device, Le. i's power source, as used in such system, stil remains sufficiently long lasting for commercial application.

Yet goals of the present invention are to have the costs of the device relatively low despite the above desired high traceability quality, and to have the tracking devics fitting a minimalistic envelope, so as to secure widespread use of such 18 a device, Le. to enable application thereof also Into smaller devices to be tracked such as small screwing or drilling sguipment.

One such the example of the relevancy of indoor tracking of objects is provided by the business case of so called stack-cants (Dutch: "stapelwagen"), and the so denoted flower cart (Dutch Bloemenkar). These are the most used means for transport of plants and flowsrs back and forth from greenhouse to trading centre and with the often vastly stretching indoor areas of flower trade centres, The cart as apart for transport by lorry, also used for indoor transportation by hand or towed i series by small a small tractor, should outside the flower trading centre buildings be provided with a so called key plate, alternatively denoted lock.

The key plate is a rectangular boxed key mechanism serving to safeguard and identify the cart.

It is thereto provided with a barcode and an RFID tag.

The coding of the tag consists of a series of 26 numbers. it is the responsibility of the entrepreneur to have sufficient key plates in stook at the various, most visited places, since an in fact borrowed cart can not leave the trading premises without such key attached to the cart.

Cart rental is hence in Tact paid by rental of key plates from, directly or indirectly, the cart owners, A draw back of this known tracking system is the key plates may be handled carelessly, £.g. by transporters at returning a cart al the trade premises, in a manner that the key plate can no longer be found, while if is not returned to the owner, and should herze stilt be paid for.

The same holds for cards that are for shorter or longer time left at a 385 greenhouse for loading flowers to be traded.

The relatively expensive key plate with cart may be left in a corner or become destroyed without the key being returned, and without any means of finding back such key plate. Hence the transporter entrepreneur may suffer endlessly ongoing costs while no functional profit may be gained.

In a project which the inventor denominated as "Smartl.oc”, the name referring both to the lock and the location, a solution to the above problem has been devised which unlike presently known tracking systems, enables tracking of the lock in a versatile manner, both in the open and within buildings such as the greenhouses and trade centres, and even within separate chambers such as cooling cells. The lock or key plate, In fact the node included therein is thereto provided with an active tracking system, using a known per se LoRaWAN loT {Intemet of Things) solution as discussed above, Additionally the node is provided with a WIFI protocol! stack for assessing locs! WIFI and Wifi access pointe information. In accordance with a system and method utilising such node, location information is determined using either one or both of assessed WIFI and LoraWAN gateway information. in such active node system the use of a battery is required. One solution in accordance with the invention to enable long battery life while still utilising a relatively small battery package nvolves a measure not to have the system in continuous operation, but rather to configure the device so that it is in most of the time in a 30 called sleep or low power modus, For position determination vast numbers of solutions may be encountered. In the present solution however low energy useage is of such importance that a new, low energy solution has been developed.

Examples of such existing solutions of position determining solutions include nor-pre published WQ2018060854 and pre-published US20190081717, with the latter examplifving the use of LoRa communication in positioning applications. The concept of the latter disclosure is disclosed as to have a powered module in communication with a receiver. The module, provided with a GPS module, is to receive a location request data packet from the receiver and to provide a location response data packet io the receiver. A micro-controller of the module periodically tums on its data communication assembly into receives mode in order to listen to a signal that may be being transmitted from the receiver. if no siognal is present, the microcontroller returns to sleep in order {o conserve power. This publication does not deal with the above 25 explained indoor positioning problem. In that respect the international publication

WO2018080854 teaches the use of a wireless electronic device, eg. inthe form of a tag, ie, the device forming a tracking device, to emi! a scan message.

One example provided is sending a Wi-Fi probe request.

This emission of a scan message is to search for nearby electronic devices supporting ifs wireless communication protocol, § denominated so called listening agent devices.

Such listening agent device may be formed by installing a listening agent software application on a Wi-Fi modem or Wi-Fi router device.

Listening agent devices may send a probe response to the tag or wireless electronic device or tracker, indicating their listening capability by inserting a predetermined listening agent identifier in the form of a binary sequence into a vendor specific information slemant (VSIE) of the probs response.

The present invention seeks to yst further simplify the location concept, while maintaining the desired features of indoor and outdoor functionality, low power consumption and minimal envelope.

The present invention therein in fact proposes to utilize environmental power, at least proposes that the tracker device is embodied a passive device, i.e. at wake up mersly acting as a receiver of environmental wireless signals, in fact collecting an instantaneous environmental wireless signal signature, and passing on the data thus collected to a central computer for establishing positional information from the data packet sent out by the tracker device, The invention thus recognizes and implements that environmental signal data is often present in abundance, at least may be used as a basis for position determination, This circumstance often even holds on board of ships.

Especially in the lalter case but also on board of other vehicles such as trucks, rather than dispatching the collected data via LoRa, the data may also bs sent via mobile device such as a mobile phone having allowed the installation of an application, so called app for such purpose, Also, in the present invention Wi-Fi is not used Tor despatching messages, Le. the data packets received from or representing the surrounding broadcast, Wifi may according to the present invention be used by way of a mesh network, the concept of which is known per se, as an sltermnative and-or addition to a Lora facility on the device Tor relaying the data package to the central computer.

Known device is intrusive of nature, Le. ft actively and purposely sends a probe to WIFI devices into it's environment and expects to receive information in response thereto. # then uses the BSSID or MAC ID in order to engage or act in response.

Often dala, e.g. soan history is then send over WIFI, which is not desired according to the present & invention, e.g. for reason of a requirement to login to a WIFI device.

In fact a log of the data received in time is then dispalched over WIFL The latter is not preferred since i requires permission or to be logged in. in the invention the tracking device by way of a probe merely listens to the broadcast of Wi-Fi stations and dispatches the results of the probe, thereby using the known per se BSSID or Binary station identifier and RSS! received.

Sending of custmised data packages may in the Invention be accomplished using one of LoRa, narrow band IOT or a commercial carrier network, including a cellular network, such as those of KPN, Sigfox and LTE-M.

A disadvantage of such latter may be that logging In is required.

In principle no use Is made of a WIFI gateway of which the BSSID and RSS! fingerprint is assesssd, Also, it is recognised by the present invention that establishing a WiFi connection over a WIFI device does not allow a vast multitude of tracking devices to be monitored as further desired by the invention, e.g. for low cost, yet commercial inventory tracking with a masive amount of tracking devices.

Much more nodes are required in the commercially operable, at least aimed and invented system of tracking and also the distance over which these devices are to be tracked is much larger that allowed by a WiFi device, which typically is within domestic range.

A tracking device according to the invention typically, by way of redundancy, at least as a means of maximising the transmission of data packages is hance equipped with more than one type of communicating technology.

Yet, the system and method of invention by it's nature accomplishes very low power consumption.

Should however a baltery after some considerable period of ime become depleted, the microcontroller is equipped with a battery monitoring system and warming system, for emitting a warning system sufficiently in advance, in practice e.g. two months before expected full depletion of the otherwise normally small battery to the system,

In a wifi mesh the tracking device may be woken up and briefly contacts a closest WiFi beacon for a very brief connection, hence the system may use the wifi mesh as a replacement of LoRa, Yet, for despatching over wireles nel, Lola, or commercial providers such as BIGFOX may be used.

Normally i uses a point in las! instance one can make an own network.

During probe taking, the tracking device may identify a beakon.

In that case the beacon may becomes the primary point of relay.

In the probing, the tracking devine passively listens to other users of the radio spectrum, more specifically to gateways, Le. access points, since these are stationary, The information collected at the probe is collected in a small database or record as it were and may be completed with any GPS information that might be simultansously received during such wake up. in a container boat, likely there is a if one beakon or own wifi gateway is provided a wifi-access then, especially with the customised and limited data package, a tracker device may use an existing WiFi mesh to arrive at the one, allowed wifi acces point.

A self learning character of the system of the invention holds that once a data package of an environmental scan or probe has been registered, it may be provided or corrected with location information, either manually through personal knowledge of the instantaneous location of the device at the time of data, with GPS information received in conjunction with the same dala pakage at a later stage, or with matching location information from a Google map and database of WIE] access points.

The invention will now by way of example be explained in more detail with reference to figures: FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of locating system in accordance with the invention; FIGURE 2A and 2B respectively set forth a photographic and schematic representation of a LoRa node LN and it's components; FIGURE 3A and 3B respeclively set forth a schematic representation of LoraWAN gateway LGW and a photographic representation of a small additional LoRaWAN gateway; FIGURE 4 is an example of a mapped representation of LoRaWAN gateways in a smart location network system in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 8 is an example of a client application in the form of an informative website page indicating the location of Lora Nodes LN or LoRa nodes provided Lock plates LPL as may be coupled to a device to be tracked;

FIGURE 6 is a representation of a page in a client application listing the

§ available Lora Nodes LN or devices containing the same of the client;

FIGURE 7 is an example of a series of information as included in Payload in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 8 is an example of a system's webpage indicating the gateways included in the closed network according to the SmartLoc location system of the present invention;

FIGURE 9 is an example of a data set relating to a WIFI scan as may be performed in accordance with the invention for the purpose of locating a Lora Node LN and i's coupled, to be located device,

Figure 10 Hlustrates an sxlended and versatile embodiment of the invented method and system of tracking.

In accordance with representation in FIG. 1, the design of the "Smartloc” solution, is made up of several components: - a low-power, Lora node LN; - LoRaWan a gateway LWO - an Internet provider ITC, in this example KPN; - a (Web) Server B; - a client application, such as 8 Website WS and / or App.

MA The LORA node LN will st certain predetermined times, for example every hour retum from a sleep mode.

For position determination, the node LN has a GPS module and / or a WiFi protocol stack, Through the wireless protocol stack, first the surroundings are scammed for active AP's, Le.

Access Points.

From this scan, the node selects three strongest APs.

The WIFI protocol stack is solely used for mapping of the Wiki environment, There is no data transfer via the wireless protocol stack.

When present, the GPS module is consulted a maximum number of times per day, for examples, consulted twice a day and is allowed a maximum amount of time, for example three minutes, to determine a position, With such measures the energy consumption is restricted.

The node will now transmit the data via Lora.

Subsequently, the node will, via the LoRaWAN gateway, communicate this information to the network.

The gateway will via the Internet and a sultable lot provider exchange the data.

The data is then processed in a central (database) server, for example in accordance with the table in FIG ©. Received Wi-Fi scans will be compared with Wi-Fi data from the database.

From this comparison a position is determined.

When actual GPS data would have been received, such data will be leading for the position determination.

Simultansously, the corresponding WIFI scan data will be stored in the database.

The system has thus been mads selflsarning.

In this project of application it is elected to Is restricted {a use "The Things Network” as loT service provider, It here concerns a freefopen network which, unlike paid commercial networks such as KPN networks, simply may be used without costs for an application of location determination according to the invention, By installing oT Gateways al customers, the coverage and the capacity of the loT network will increase.

In accordance with the representation in Figures 2A and 2B, the Lora node LN, shown in Fig. 28 with a configuration identification Config ID, and in popular sense also referred to as the tracking devices, consist of a small, in fact central, preferably RISC based microcontroller MUC with a WIFI protocol stack, a GPS module GPS and of a LORA transceiver TRC.

In favourable embodiment, the microcontroller is equipped with a Wi-Fi protocol stack and holds sufficient I/O to couple a GPS module and a Lora transceiver.

In the in Fig. 2B provided example the Lora transcelver TRC is adapted to the European standard Lora 868 Mhz, and embodied here as a standard processor, which is at least compatible with the BX1278 standard, so that it is possible to exchange data via most of the EU oT providers, in other words is operable with the EU Lora channels at 868Mhz.

A tracker for world wide application will be embodied with communication facilities at multiple frequencies.

The central microcontroller in this example controls the Lora transceiver via 12C and ís in accordance with preference also responsible for the Lora protocol, including the AES encryption.

The SmariLoc Node LN, Le. the node LN according to the invention, for the latter uses the Arduino port of the LMIC framework (LoraWAN-in-C). The software that controls the LoraWan protocol is based on an open implementation of IBM, The OFS module is provided with a processor which has both a GPS, Glonass, and Galileo support.

The GPS module is read via the serial port of the central processor.

The various components ars compactly constructed, which makes them relatively simple In many applications such incorporation in a so called lock plate (Dutch: slotplaat) for flower carts. For the eventual functionality the node LN is according to the invention provided with appropriate programming codes lines, Le. software, as may be readily set forth and applied a person skilled in the art, in other words with software which is specifically tailored to the requirements of a desired embodiment of the various modules.

In accordance with representation in, amongst others FIG. 1 and FIG. 34, the LoRaWAN gateway LGW controls the data transfer to the Internet. Such gateways may include stations located on masts for nationwide covering net work, by a communications provider CP. Such stations may be supplemented with smaller, “proprietary” stations, of which, by way of example, an embodiment is represented in FIG. 3B. These are lightweight, can in principle be applied for example with a suction cup on a window of a building. The scope of such smaller channels is usually less, typically up to about 8 km. In the embodiment of the present invention, use is made of the open and costless available "The Things Network", In this network a large number of galeways ars available with which the nods Lora LN according to the invention might connect. The present invention preferably extensively uses the possibility adding self-owned gateways LGW to the network, In accordance with the invention this possibility is used to install gateways at or close to own, proprietary or frequently visited or otherwise strategic locations. The sign of the Lora node LN to the gateway LGW may in this manner additionally be used to estimate the target position e.g. the lock plate in a global manner in cases that GPS might not be available, such as is often the cass within a building. Figure 4 could form an example of such an additional coverage, by means of “own”, or at least additional installations of small Lora stations LGW. Such, also denoted as "small" gateways, are relatively inexpensivly availabls in the order of around € 300, and may be connected to the internet via a network, UTP cable or a wireless WiFi connection. The Smart Loc tracking or localization method further departs from a hybrid system, in which also the WIFI environment is used as a location feature. WIFI is however expressly not used for communication with the Internet and also there is no communicating with the wireless network. Rather, in the localization method according to the invention, a scan is made of the available Wi-Fi access points, of the strongest three of which the MAC address ís stored together with the measure of the bond or signal strength, In other words of the so called RSS1 If necessary, the differences in bond strength are also used to identify different locations within a building.

The GPS is in the method according to the invention consulted as little as possible, Where a valid GPS position is determined, the corresponding WIFI scan is stored in the server database, With this, the system is self-learning and strategic locations within buildings are recorded In the dalabase with associated WIEI information.

In the method according to the present invention, when needed, use is mads of the available position determination within LoraWan, which is based on the known locations of the in fact fo be nominated “large” galeway stations, Because several stations may receive the signal from a node LN a rough position determination is possible on the basis thereof.

Depending on the number of gateways LGW, regardless of whether these belong to the LoraWan or to the seli-installed, say small stations that receive the node LN, a more accurate position determination within the method according to the invention has been enabled.

The method according to the invention, and thus the SmariLoc System, uses the RSS! information of the gateway stations to calculate a weighted average position if necessary.

This is in the setup of the SmariLoc method and the SmariLoc system, the preferably last preferred method to opt for in determining position information.

This position determination can in doing so, in the present method and by the system be classified as to be inaccurate for location dependent or customer-specific billing of a customer for the apparent holding of a with the node LN linked object such as, for example, a flower carl.

This situation will generally be prevented by locating additional gateways at strategie locations at selling up a closed network, Le. a network specifie for SmartLoc.

It is noted that more expensive versions of the SmatiLoc nodes LN may use a Bluetooth facility provided thereon.

In a mode BLE for short-range communication a option is acknowledged to improve positioning.

In doing so, use is made of the fact that, well-known Bluetooth nodes with known ID and position may placed at predetermined locations, Le. locations of which the validity is known with certainty, . The SmartLoc, at least Lora node LN according to the invention further allows use of 3 so-called "Deep Sleep’ mode, so that the node LN, in accordance with the invention, consumes extremely little energy.

Only a necessary wake-up timer and some RAM of the realtime counter (RTC) in the module is used. Doing so allows the node LN to return to is run context, je. to find the same when it wakes up, or to allow continuation as from the point whers it was before falling or going “asleep”.

& In the method according to the invention, the communication through the LoRaWan is determined by the Lora standard. The payload that is sent, is however minimized and thergfore customized for SmeriLoc system: this may depend on the wishes of the customer or the application take several forms. For instance, a 12-byte version, of which 8 byles of so-called Lat/Lon and 4 bytes for the battery voltage; a 13-byle version, of which 8 bytes of Lat/Lon and 4 bytes for the battery voltage and 1 byte which indicates whether there was a GPS fix; a 50 bytes version with 5x 10 bytes (= © bytes WIFI MAC address + 4 bytes R881). In this version incidentally, in conformance with a further possible embodiment, thers is no possibility whatsoever towards GPS information, A fourth sxample relates to an embodiment having 43 bytes, including 8 bytes of Lat/Lon, 4 bytes battery vollags, 1 byte GPS status, and 3x 10 bytes of Wi-Fi information. A fifth embodiment is also 43 bytes in accordance with version 4, bul with redefined coding of battery vollage.

The thus extracted information is in accordance with the invention, incorporated in a dedicated server 5, In the form of a database. At incorporation, inter alla, the received wireless information is matched with WIFi information marked as known In the database. Another aspect of the locating method according to the invention is that the data server is provided with a self-learning algorithm for locating and establishing of Wi-Fi access locations. With that, the algorithm contains logic which ensures that there Is virtually no information stored double. it is also provided, that an entry in the database is marked in a manner allowing recognition of whether the Wi-Fi location entry has bean obtained by the self-lsaming or by manual input info the system, The manually input locations are preferred here over a matched WIFI location. Yet, i appears in practice that a very high and commercially useful degree of reliability is obtained, This certainty is In accordance with a further elaboration of the method according to the invention increased even more through a further part of the algorithm that performs a match with customer data known in the datshase. This additional match is determined by comparing the position of the node with the customer's position, At such, the nearest customer Is determined, and subsequently whether the position thersof is within a predetermined meaningful distance.

FIG. 5 is an example of an information page out of the SmartLoc Localisation System SL, such as has been made available to a flower transportation business, provisional customer number 52633, and of which by way of trial, three of the transport carts under the responsibility of the business ars equipped with a lock plate LN according to the invention. The figure lustrates that the three cars on certain date and time wers located at two different locations represented by name, If necessary, an additional LoRaWAN gateway is installed at or near the location of a regular customer to accommodate the "Smartb.oc” nodes that will be around there. These lock plates can be followed via a simple web interface, and there will be a daily assessment of where or with whom these lock plates are. H a lock-plate provided object such as a flower cart is in between fixed, Le. known locations, a relatively coarse location assessment is provided if so desired, whether or not on a separate page, of objects that are * likely in transport”.

in accordance with the representation in FIG 6, the system provides, in yet another page, an overview of nodes signed in at a network that is in this case called "The Things Network", in this example anumber of 10 nodes. At predetermined times, for example every hour, the SmartLoc node LN will attempt to transmit its data to the IoT network, In the payload, that is to say, in the transmitted data, there is present, as for axample represented in FIG 7, in succession, the GPS position, 3 WIFI MAC addresses and an indication of the battery voliage. Yet another page of the system according to the invention provides, as shown in FIG. 8, the locations of additionally issued "Internat of things (loT)" Gateway stations LGW, here in a number of seven, So as lo increase the coverage of the existing network these are posted at places strategic to application by a customer. For the management of the foregoing, a server is arranged on a specific network, In this example the 'Lohman-solutions.com’ network, which comprises a database such as an SQL database, a Web site, a MOTT connector, for example Python, and a data processor module for executing analysis. The database maintains a number of lables, gach with multiple of specific information for each component! of the Smartl.oc system, such as as a customer table, a message table, a SmariLoc nodes LN table, a Will Location Table, and a resulis table. The desired data may be retrieved from the database with appropriate queries, The following query is an example of how it is determined how many loc-plates or nodes are present at a certain location for each customer:

SELECT timestamp, al_customer, description, b.customer_id, couni{a.al_customer) FROM smartplate. results a, smariplate plates b, smariplate customers ¢ WHERE aplate_id=b.plate id AND c.cusiomer_id=a.af_ customer AND fimestamp = (select max(timesiamp) FROM smariplate.resulls) AND a.at_distance <500 GROUP BY b.customer_id, at_cusiomer; The website uses, in a potential, here elected embodiment, a Windows 2012 Server with IIS, For displaying of a map with information use is made of an open source library, which In the present case is written in the JavaScript language. The website also uses the PHP language, which works at the "server side”, and is ussd to retrieve resulls from the SQL database. Because the results are relieved at the server-side, database access by the client is not required. A database with such a design is hence not “directly” on the Internet. The web site in the embodiment according to the invention requires that for users, inter alla authentication is present, for a robust application of the present SmartLoc location system SL.

The MOTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) connector, a standardised machine to machine (M2M) data transfer protocol, provides the coupling or link with the The Things Network, Through a Python script, a call back is obtained through the MOTT framework with new data from the SmartLoc Nodes involved. With this Python script, in the on_message handler, the data of a SmanLoc Node may be stored in the database. The data processor is a calculation module which is every day at one or more predetermined times, e.g., at 23:00 hour, initiated by a so-called Task Scheduler, From the received messages il is derived where SmartLoc Nodes are located. For this purpose, the following algorithm is used: - la the GPS data recently -> GPS position leading -> Position 1 - Is there a WIFI scan => compare with WiFi data In the database ~> Position 2 - Position of the host gateways -> Weighted position in dependence of the received signal strength of the SmartLac node -> position 3 in order of importance, and availability position 1, position 2 and position 3, respectively, will be used for determination of the SmartLoc node SL, This algorithm, and these positions, as previously discussed, may be extended with reference to a, for example at a location disposed Bluetooth element and the scanning thereof.

In the particular case where both a first position and a Wifi Scan is available, the database will be tested to see if there is already a WIFI scan present for this position. if not, then position 1 with associated Wi-Fi scan is added to the database.

Figure 10 illustrates an extended and versatile embodiment of the invented method and system of tracking and collecting position information PI, using a Wi-Fi Mesh network known per se as an alternative and/or in addition to LoRa, the network comprising Beacons B and using a local access point LAP to connect to the internet of things ITC; Position information Pl as collected in a local database LDB may apart from e.g. GPS info be attained from the google WIFI access point database. The Wifi mesh network is in one embodiment used if no LoRa is available. Through brief contact between WIFI beacons B the dala packet may be handed over without burdening the mesh of beacons or ifs capacity, until a local WIFI access point is reached which transfers the package to the ITC, Such local access point may be formed by a device positioned thereto at a certain convenient location, and provied with an app for tranferming the package. For instance in a truck, a mobile phone associated with the truck, e.g. that of the driver, may form a local access point LAP, in that it has installed an app for data package relay, hence has expressly provided permission to use it's connection with the internet, it may be clsar that by the nature of the WiFi mesh no such use is made of the WIFI devices that form a beacon in the mesh, In such mesh system and method, a closest WIFI beacon is briefly connected for relaying the data package. If it indicates to be occupied, loaded or unavailable, a second closest beacon ís contacted, which in turn contacts further beacons B until a beacon forming a local access point is found, At the server S, a local database of locations is automatically developed by each package this received via the ITC. If an environmental fingerprint is registered without a GPS signal being sent together with it, the location may be manually input to the database. Alternatively, using a self leaming feature and program provided to the server, position information may be added at a later stage if the same scan data is received in conjunction with a GPS system, which is sometimes not available.

Alternatively a google databases containing amongst others MAC adresses of WiFi gale ways is used to retrieve or else approximate a certain location by executing a matching operation using MAC adresses and signal strength. As a result position information Pi is eventually delivered to MA or WS, based on a self learning, al least filling database of locations.

The present invention, apart from what has been described above, also relates to all details in the figures, at least for as far as these are directly and unambiguously retrisvable by a skilled person, and to everything that Is described in the following set of claims, as well in the following set of clauses: 1 Method for tracking an object using long wave radio transmission, in which an object is provided with a device provided with a long wave radio (LoRa) node, a GPS module and/or electronic means for long wave radio gateway identification, in which the object 18 is programmed to periodically leave a stand by mode for determining and transmitting its position to a network relaying the position information to a position registering computer S.

2 Method in accordance with clause 1, in which positional information is further assessed on the basis of characteristic WF and WIFI access points information scanned and relayed by said LoRa node, 3 Method according to clause 2, In which the positional information Is assessed by establishing solely the MAC of the Wifi Access points detected, in particular that of the strongest access point, more in pardicular excluding other access point information.

4 Method in accordance with clause 1 in which additional LoRa gateways are located In area's to be covered for location determination.

5 Method in accordance with the preceding clause, In which a location is determined on the basis of a weighed mean position, using gateway information of multiple gateways.

8 Method in accordance with clause 2, In which the WIFt information of multiple access points is scanned and collected for determining a node location.

7 Method in accordance with clause 2, In which the method features a self leaming algorithm for registering WIFI access points in relation to one of GPS or customer provided location information.

8 Method in accordance with clause 1, in which location information is determined on the basis of LoRa Gateway information if no GPS and no WIFI information is collected. 9 Locating system using long range (LoRa) wide area network (WAN) facility, involving a Lora node, a LoraWAN gateway, an internet provider, a webserver and a client application such as app or website, in which the node is provided with both a GPS module and a WIFI protocol stack, in which nods the GPS module is consulted a limited number of times per day, in every case during a limited amount of time, and in which the WIFI protocol stack is configured for scanning the WIFI surroundings and assessing a limited number of strongest WIFI access points (AP). 10 System according to clause 8, in which the node despalches consultation and assessment data via LoRa. 11 System according to clause 10, in which the node sets the data available to a natwork via the LoRaWAN gateway. 12 System according to clause 11, in which the gateway exchanges the data with an Internat of Things provider. 13 System in accordance with any of the preceding system clauses 8 to 12 in which the consultation and assessment data are recorded on a central database server. 14 System in accordance with any of the preceding system clauses, in which the data are utilised for determining the position of the node, 15 Long range radio based tracking node LN provided with a GPS receiving module, a microcontroller and a transceiver module Tor Long range radio transmission module, 18 Node in accordance with clause 15, provided with a WIFI protocall stack.

Claims (1)

CONCLUBIONS 1. Method for wirelessly tracking an object, or using radio transmission, wherein an object is provided with a device provided with a wireless node such as a radio node, a GPS module and / or electronic means for identifying a wireless device. gateway such as a radio gateway, wherein in a first method step the device, for example by programming it, periodically leaves a stand-by mode to enter a receiver mode, in order to determine in a further step signals or environmental data from its environment and subsequently as a data package on a network, to transmit this vaporized environmental data to a computer S, and in a further step, information about its location being! determined and recorded, whereby the determination of its environmental data takes place passively, by listening to other users of the radio spectrum, in particular to gateway, the environmental information being determined on the basis of the determined characteristic data of WIFI and WIFI access points, and where the data is alternatively transmitted to or in loop on a Lora node, through a WiFi mesh Local Access Point (LAP) node. Method according to claim 1, wherein the location information is determined by determining the MAC and the strength of the selected WIFI access points, wherein in particular the strength of the WHO access points contributes weighted to the location determination, more in particular under exclusion. of other information from the access points, 3. The method of claim 1, wherein additional LoRa gateways are placed in an area to be covered for location determination. A method according to the preceding claim, wherein a location is determined based on a weighted average position, using gateway data from multiple gateways. The method of claim 1, wherein the WIFI data from multiple access points is disconnected and collected to determine node iocatis. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes a self-learning algorithm for registering WIFI access points with respect to one of GPS, Google database and customer-provided location data. The method of claim 1, wherein the locatis information is determined based on LoRa Gateway data if no GPS and no WIFI information is collected. 8. Locating system using a network facility such as a wide grea network (WAN) facility, including a node, a galeway, an internet provider, a web server and a client application, such as an app or website, wherein the node is preferably provided with a GPS module and at least one wireless, so called WHO! protocol stack, whereby the node is consulted an equal GPS module preferably in the range of more than zero times or a limited number of times per day, each time for a limited time, whereby the WIFI profocolstack is configured for scanning the WIFI environment and determining a limited number of the strongest WIFI access points (AP), wherein the gateway exchanges the data with a provider of information of Things, and wherein the polling and determination data is stored in a central database server. The system of claim 8, wherein the node provides query and evaluation data over LoRa, and makes the data available to a network through either the gateway LoRaWAN or a local access point (LAR) of a WIFI mesh. System according to any one of the preceding system claims, wherein the data is used to centrally determine the position of the node 11. Long range radio (LoRa) based tracking node LN equipped with sen WIFt protocol! stack, a microcontroller, a transceiver module for long-range radio transmission. Node according to the preceding claim, provided with a GPS receiver module.