Gravio Blog
October 21, 2022

Creating Interoperability Between an IoT Edge Computing Platform and a Real-Time Location & Sensor Solution (RTLSS)

In this short article, Gravio explores the integration with AetherIoT, a Real-time Location & Sensor Solutions (RTLSS) platform to enable real-time asset tracking with an accuracy of 3-5 metres.
Creating Interoperability Between an IoT Edge Computing Platform and a Real-Time Location & Sensor Solution (RTLSS)

Background

The Gravio team has decided to run an exploratory integration with an RTLSS product as a method to progress into potential working partners for the future.

Gravio is known for creating interoperability between solutions and devices using its platform. The benefit is that we can connect to multiple devices or systems very quickly to enhance their capabilities. Hence, we have decided to put our platform to the test by connecting to a Real-time Location and Sensor Solution (RTLSS) developed by AetherIoT.

AetherIoT is a RTLSS solution provider with hardware that span multiple radio frequencies – e.g., Wireless Mesh (which we have integrated with as part of this Gravio <> AetherIoT partnership), GPS, UWB, BLE. Great thing about AetherIoT is that hardware data (across any number of radio frequencies) is parsed, normalized, and easily accessible by any software platform via API/SDKs.

The Reason for Integration

  • Gravio as a product alone does not cover all the categories of IoT devices. As Gravio aims to create interoperability, having an easy way to integrate with other products/services is vital.
  • AetherIoT as a product and service only focuses on RTLSS and will be able to unlock new features by integrating with Gravio.

The Process

AetherIoT team (Gregory, CEO, right; Vincent, COO, left) discuss drivers for a 'win-win' partnership with Gravio

Gravio and AetherIoT started off by introducing our products and services to each other on a deeper level in a workshop session. Once we have understood how our respective products work, we started to begin thinking about use cases and steps that we need to take for integration. AetherIoT has also developed a very clean way of integration via MQTT which Gravio also supports out of the box. We then proceeded with placing AetherIoT RTLSS devices all around the office.

AetherIoT anchors -- fully battery-operated -- placed throughout the vicinity triangulate the XY coordinate location of assets

Our next step is establishing the connection between Gravio and AetherIoT devices through MQTT. The goal is to be able to extract raw information from the devices so that we are able to get X, Y coordinates to provide an estimated location in an area.

Raw data shown in Gravio via MQTT subscription layer

Now that we are able to receive the raw data in Gravio, the integration is complete. We will be able to create Actions to decide what we want to do with this data collected.

Results and Findings

What we have created is a very simple use case: when a person walks to their desk, send a Line notification to an Administrator stating that this person is at the desk. Similarly to asset tracking, you can say when an asset is in an area, report it to someone. Alternatively, you can also build your own dashboard directly with AetherIoT, here is an example of a custom one they have built for themselves.

Coupling this feature with Gravios’ Actions, a visual and real-time reporting feature will become very powerful for any organization looking to track assets or personnel within an area. You can refer to a short video of the end result below.

If you like to find out more about AetherIoT please feel free to check out their website here and follow their LinkedIn page for updates.

See you in the next post! 

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