Outdoor / Forest Use

Hi All,

hope some one out there can give me a answer on this. I’m trying to set up a tracking system on a block of land that has a fair amount of forest coverage.
The block has a lot of thin trees, some larger/thicker trees, and a lot of shrubs. My intention was to build a grid of anchor points 40 m- 50m apart and allow users
to walk around the forest and track their location. Im looking for a accuracy of around 50cm. Now at times users my walk through the shrubbed area, and it can get abit thick. My intent was to have users wear a cap with the antenna above the users head. although some places the shrubs can be above head height. Would any of these products allow me to do that?
or would the NLOS cause to many problems.

Thanks,
Rikki

Hi Rikki,

The ranges you are mentioning can be covered using DWM1001, but it is true than environment and in particular NLOS conditions will have a strong impact on the performance.

My feeling is that it may work with a slightly higher grid density, maybe one anchor every 30-25m. It is hard to give a clear answer as it completely depends on the environment.

What I may recommend is to get a MDEK1001 kit (around 300$).

It’s very easy to use, and it will allow you to quickly setup a RTLS network and see the feasibility of your project.

Thank you,
Yves

Hi,

I’ve purchased a dwm1001 kit. I tested it out, I only managed range of 10 - 15m. I was wondering how to modify the firmware to increase the range??

Rikki

Hi gizah233. You could try to increase preamble length (we used 1024) and decrease data rate to 110kbp/s. I’m not sure whether it helps in your case but we had much bigger range with this settings.

Hi,

I’d like to try that. Just I’m not sure how to update it? Can it be done via the app on the phone or will I need to access the firmware?

Thanks,
Rikki

Sorry, have no idea about the app. I dealt only with dw1000 chip and evk1000.

The PANS SW that comes with the DWM1001 does not have option to reconfigure RF/Channel parameters.

We had a Decawave-based tracking system setup in the forest some months ago. It ran unexpectedly bad. The reason was that the trees are quite good UWB blockers due to their amount of water they have within their trunks.
That doesn’t mean it is unuseable, but keep that issue in mind. Maybe mount some more anchors to increase coverage.

Hi,

Cheers for the heads up? Did you guys use the dwm1001 evaluation kit? Or your own set up?? And how far apart did you place the beacons??

Rikki