Abstract
Pick-by-light is used for fast localization of items at the picking process in ware-house logistics. In general, pick-by-light systems are installed on racks or shelves which have to be powered by wires. This is very expensive and often involves complex installation procedures, wherefore wireless pick-by-light systems have gained a lot of research interest due to their flexibility, portability and low deployment costs. However, the existing wireless pick-by-light systems have limited range and introduce additional maintenance efforts, which make them inapplicable for bigger warehouses. This paper presents a wireless pick-by-light system based on LoRaWAN, a leading LPWAN standard, which is fully scalable. The proposed system offers long range due to unique LoRa RF modulation technique. In order to extend the battery life and thereby to minimize maintenance costs, the pick-by-light modules are built on power optimized LoRaWAN end devices. The system also suggests RSSI based asset tracking inside warehouses within the same framework for smarter routing of the human picker. In order to verify the proposed system, a prototype is developed and evaluated. The evaluation shows the technical implementation and its results.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
atoptechnologies: Wireless pick-to-light Systems (2017). http://www.atop.com.tw/atop/product/product_list/data/atop_ablepick/en/wireless_pick-to-light/
Adelantado, F., Vilajosana, X., Tuset-Peiro, P., Martinez, B., Melia-Segui, J., Watteyne, T.: Understanding the limits of LoRaWAN. IEEE Commun. Mag. 55(9), 34–40 (2017)
Alhmiedat, T., Samara, G., Salem, A.O.A.: An indoor fingerprinting localization approach for ZigBee wireless sensor networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.1809 (2013)
Alliance, L.: LoRaWAN\(^{\rm TM}\) What is it? (2015). https://www.lora-alliance.org/lorawan-white-papers
Alliance, L.: LoRaWAN Specification (2017). https://www.lora-alliance.org/lorawan-for-developers
Augustin, A., Yi, J., Clausen, T., Townsley, W.M.: A study of LoRa: long range & low power networks for the Internet of Things. Sensors 16(9), 1466 (2016)
EnOcean GmbH: Fully wireless picking modules (2017). http://www.eulait.de/en/picduino
Fraunhofer IIS: Pick-by-local light (2017). https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/de/ff/lv/net/proj/pbLL.html
Kim, C.: Measuring power consumption of CC2530 with Z-Stack. Application Note AN079 (2012)
LinksLabs: Low Power Wide Area Networks (2016). https://www.link-labs.com/lpwan
Microchip: LoRa RN 2483 (2017). http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/RN2483
Modulation, S.L.: LoRa\(^{\rm TM}\) Modulation Basics (2017). http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/rf-transceivers/sx1272/
Semtech: LoRa® Geolocation (2016). https://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/lora-geolocation
Tatar, Y., Yıldırım, G.: An alternative indoor localization technique based on fingerprint in wireless sensor networks. Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Commun. Eng. 2(2), 1288–1294 (2013)
Technologies, L.P.: Wireless pick-to-light (2017). https://lightningpick.com/wireless-pick-to-light/
Đukić, G., Česnik, V., Opetuk, T.: Order-picking methods and technologies for greener warehousing. Strojarstvo 52(1), 23–31 (2010)
Yiu, S., Dashti, M., Claussen, H., Perez-Cruz, F.: Wireless RSSI fingerprinting localization. Signal Process. 131, 235–244 (2017)
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by BMWi.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Asghar, U., Lütjen, M., Rohde, AK., Lembke, J., Freitag, M. (2018). Wireless Pick-by-Light: Usability of LPWAN to Achieve a Flexible Warehouse Logistics Infrastructure. In: Freitag, M., Kotzab, H., Pannek, J. (eds) Dynamics in Logistics. LDIC 2018. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74225-0_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74225-0_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74224-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74225-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)