Construction & Heavy Machinery · Research Project
Safe Site Tags: Theft Protection for the Construction Site
Together with the Geodetic Institute of RWTH Aachen University, IOX is developing a modular sensor tag that protects construction machinery and tools against theft and can locate people on the construction site.
Project / Customer
“Safe Construction Site” is a research project funded through the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) within the 5G4Construction innovation network. IOX develops it together with the Geodetic Institute of RWTH Aachen University (gia). The result is the Safe Site Tags: one piece of hardware for two use cases, theft protection and personnel safety.
The Situation
Construction sites are open, and machines, equipment and tools change places every day. What disappears at night costs not only the replacement value but often days on site. At the same time it should be clear where people are moving on the site, including inside buildings that GPS signals do not reach.
The Key Question
How does a small, self-sufficient tag reliably protect machinery and tools against theft, even where mobile coverage is weak, while also locating people inside the building?
What We Built
PRODUCT: The sensor tag sits on a 60 × 50 mm circuit board. At its core is a Nordic nRF54L15 running Zephyr; cellular connectivity runs over LTE-M with the Nordic nRF9151. A compact Ignion antenna, battery and solar module make the tag self-sufficient, and LEDs indicate its status. For indoor positioning, a UWB module can be plugged on and detached again.
SYSTEM: Several tags form a group and talk to each other via Bluetooth Low Energy, even across multiple stations and with a range of at least 30 meters outdoors. One tag takes turns acting as master and transmits the data of all tags, including GPS position, to the backend once a day via LTE-M. Without a network, data is buffered locally. This keeps energy consumption low, and a group still reports in even when individual tags have no reception.
DIVISION OF WORK: IOX develops hardware, antenna, power supply, mounting and the firmware. The gia contributes the algorithms for positioning, motion prediction and interference correction as well as the UWB software. IOX developed and tested the firmware in its own simulation environment before the first hardware was on the table.
The Result
The new tracker hardware is built. The first devices go to the gia, where they will be tested in the test hall: on a simulated construction site with fixed and mobile antennas, with a total station as independent reference for positioning accuracy. The project runs until mid-2027. At the end there will be a prototype showing that theft protection and person locating work with a shared piece of hardware, as the basis for a series product with a partner from the construction industry.
60 × 50 mm
Circuit board, smaller than a business card
100 % self-sufficient
Battery and solar, no power connection on the construction site
30 m+
Bluetooth range between tags outdoors