Gerai Cerdas' UWB Tracker Offers High-Accuracy Positioning From an ESP32-Powered Open Source Board
Offering four-inch positioning, this compact board includes a dual-core processor and on-board battery management.
Self-described "hardware innovation facilitation" company Gerai Cerdas has launched an ultra-wideband (UWB) tracker development board, powered by an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller module — and has released the design under a reciprocal license.
"This development board is designed for ranging and location based on [the Decawave] DWM1000. The DWM1000 itself is an IEEE802.15.4-2011 Ultra-Wideband compliant wireless transceiver module based on Decawave's DW1000 IC," Gerai Cerdas explains of its creation. "This UWB module enables the location of objects in real time location systems (RTLS) to a precision of 10cm indoors."
The compact development board features, alongside Decawave's module, an Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 dual-core microcontroller with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy (BLE) connectivity. USB Type-C is used for data and power, and there's an on-board battery charge management circuit. A 26-pin expansion header, unpopulated, is found to the bottom of the board.
The Decawave DW1000 is becoming increasingly popular for high-accuracy location tracking projects: Late last year Makerfabs launched its own ESP32-powered USB module, which it sells starting at $39.80; like the Gerai Cerdas version, it's also open source — though the company has yet to clarify under exactly what license it's made available.
As with all UWB positioning systems, you'll need more than one: Two units will allow for ranging, while three or more are required to triangulate a position in space. The company also has a warning for anyone looking to pick a couple of boards up: "We're currently specialized in hardware development. You will need programming skills to use this product."
The board is available on the Gerai Cerdas Tindie store at $48.70 now, with additional details, design files, and source code available on the project's GitHub repository under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
