Hi, we have a number of labs and office areas in which the long term goal is for robots\autonomous systems and humans to interact and coexist. We’re currently looking at ROS-compatible options for RTLS and localisation for robots in the building and would like to investigate the Marvelmind INS system as an option for this.
Would appreciate knowing about lead-times\availability and suggested options for covering large areas of our building.
In terms of coverage the system works in some large warehouses of 10k square meters. The main limitation is that each beacon should have line of sight to at least 2 other beacons to achieve good tracking performance. So in a multi-room office this would require a few more beacons per room, but is definitely possible to do.
The last thing that will impact your selection is the tracking architecture, inverse or non-inverse.
Inverse Architecture (IA). In the inverse architecture, stationary beacons emit ultrasound, and mobile beacons receive ultrasound. This is similar concept to how GPS works. As a result, stationary beacons must have different frequencies in each submap. The system has a limitation of a maximum of 250 beacons. You would make each room a submap, and them combine them all on the marvel mind tracker as the system can track position as the mobile becon moves between submaps.
Non Inverse Architecture (NIA). This is where the mobile beacon transmits ultrasound, and the stationary beacons receive ultrasound. This is required when working in a very noisy environment, for example onboard a drone. This system has a limitation on a maximum of 4 mobile beacons.
Here is a comparison table
My suggestion would be to start with one of our basic starter kits, This one is ideal as it allows you to experiment with both IA, NIA and MF NIA architectures to see what will work best for your application, then build up from there - Marvelmind Starter Set Super-MP-3D
Otherwise we also have a basic 2D kit such as this one to get a taste of the marvelmind system - Marvelmind DSP 2D Lite Indoor Navigation Positioning System (Inverse Architecture) - Unmanned Tech UK FPV Shop to test the system out, and then build of from there?
We also have outdoor beacons should you want to extend your maps to outdoor settings where you need precision localisation and do not want or cannot use RTK.
For lead times, we only have around 5pc of each device in stock, but in general the factory in Shenzhen has good stock for all the items with a few exceptions, so in general the lead time will be about 2 weeks once you confirm an order. But once we have a better idea of the exact units you need I can give you a more concrete lead time.
