The Department of Innovation at Ferrovial Services Spain has finished a pilot project for starting a localization system in interiors based on technology from the Galician startup Situm.
The system manages to cross movement information collected by cell phone sensors with the intensity of Wi-Fi signals to determine its exact position inside a building where GPS coverage is scarce or absent. That way, it’s not necessary to install extra infrastructure (except in dead zones) to locate a mobile device with a margin of error less than 3 meters.
On the one hand, the tool has an app where the user will see themselves located on the facility map. They will be able to set a destination and see the route they should follow to it. On the other, it has a web platform where the administrator can consult the location of users and heat map histories in real-time. All of the information generated is available in CSV format so that the data can be downloaded, processed, and integrated into any visualization tool.
This experimental idea came to an end on January 30, after six months of tests at the offices of one of the company’s main clients in the province of Alicante. The project’s success has been confirmed by its optimal functioning in office spaces, on rooves, and in underground parking lots, demonstrating the reliability of the system.
Juan Vicente Ibáñez, manager in the area of Alicante and Murcia, and a driving force behind carrying out this pilot, positively assesses the impact that knowing the exact time spent on each activity has on operational efficiency, as does the concentration of maintenance activities in certain areas.
Thanks to the analysis of data provided by this system, the tool enables us to detect hot spots, optimize our worker’s routes, reduce pre-operation times, and optimize resources
This technology will now be available for contracts that show interest in the application. Such is the case, for instance, of customer service and the guide service for individuals with reduced mobility at the Malaga Airport or the Airbus maintenance contract, which are already working with the Department of Technology Transfer to implement it in the coming months.
