Hello everyone, I plan to purchase an ESP32 UWB DW3000 board（https://www.makerfabs.com/esp32-uwb-dw3000.html） to build an indoor positioning system. However, I have doubts about whether the chip can support multi-tag positioning: whether it is possible to deploy the ESP32 DW3000 Board on a large scale, such as building a system coverage for an entire floor with 100 base stations and 100 Tags. How much computational power is required to locate a single tag? Can the chip's computational power handle a scenario with this many base stations and tags?
Most of the cases I have found so far involve positioning a single tag in a small room, so I'm not sure if this system can be scaled up to large-scale applications. I am looking forward to and greatly appreciate your response！
This sounds more like a PC based system when you start to think what you will do with the information , ie display it , request location of tag, graphics , take action on it ?
Scale it to ten and see how it goes , cost out the parts to see if it’s feasible . ( you would be unwise to go from 1 to 100 in one step ). There is a lot of info on the net to study on animal tracking around farms etc .
Who are the poor souls that will enjoyed being tracked and why ?
not Elon Musk
Study the DW3000 literature on the Decawave web site.
Hi hammy，
Thank you very much for your response. I am planning to build an indoor positioning system for smart buildings. For example, once the system knows the location of a person, it can automatically control lights or windows. Of course, there are many other interesting applications for indoor positioning systems, which you can explore if you're interested.
The basic principle of using UWB (Ultra-Wideband) indoor positioning is that tags and base stations transmit and receive UWB signals using Time of Flight (TOF) method to calculate the distance between the tag and the base station. By knowing the distances between the tag and three different base stations, the tag's position can be determined using trilateration. Therefore, the chip's computational capability is crucial, especially in scenarios with multiple tags and base stations.
Since I haven't purchased an ESP32 yet, I am unable to try it directly. I just want to make sure that the CPU of ESP32 can meet the positioning requirements for multiple tags before spending that amount of money.
The ESP32 CPU is not a concern. Given a set of distance measurements, the calculation to establish a position is simple and fast.
The issues are the method used and time required for the DW3000 chips to measure distances between them.
There is no fully functional Arduino library for the DW3000 chips.
A working indoor positioning system for the DW1000/ESP32 can be found here, but it supports only one tag.
Hi ,
I have seen this project before, and it is a real surprise, that you are the author, thank you very much.
Yes, handling a single tag is relatively easier, but dealing with multiple tags presents more challenges. I hope I can find a way to build the system with using DW3000
Sounds great, but don't waste your time worrying about the ESP32.
Study the DW3000 literature carefully, and write the Arduino library first.
I found a library hier , will that be useful?
I haven't got the chip yet, I can't verify it
I know nothing about that library and have no way to test it. I don't see any documentation for the library.
Try it and let us know what you learn.
Hi Jremington,
I'd like to inquire, do you have ever used ESP32 DW1000 connected to a power bank? If so, may I ask what capacity of power bank you used and how long it could run for at maximum? I am considering how much capacity of power bank I should purchase. Thanks
I don't use power banks. The ESP32-DW1000 module runs well on a single 18650 cell, using 3.3V provided by this regulator.
Estimate the battery lifetime by (battery capacity in mAh)/(average current draw in mA).
Thank you for your response. I have found the data provided by the supplier, but I find it a bit confusing. The table states that the Operating Current Average is 80 mA, but the Minimum Current delivered by the power supply is 500 mA. I'm not sure which value I should divide by. May I ask, how long did you run it with the 18650 cell? Then I can make an estimate.
The longest run was probably two hours, but the battery would last much longer than that. Since the battery lifetime depends on the quality and capacity of the cells you have, set up one example and experiment with it.
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