Distributed and collaborative proactive tandem location tracking of vehicle products for warehouse operations

Dynamic location information of the product in warehouse is vital for many processes such as order picking and stock taking. In the vehicle warehouse, stored products are mass customized vehicles with wheels which means they move frequently and haphazardly during operations. The dynamic location information of the vehicles is neither known nor updated, which thus lead to excessive time was consumed in searching, checking and picking the vehicles in warehouse. To solve this problem, this paper first presents the proactive tracking system architecture using iBeacon technology and the conception of distributed gateways. A collaborative and distributed tandem tracking approach is then proposed to realize tracking efficiency including the accuracy and responsiveness. We combine the location information with the warehouse working procedures seamlessly by adopting location-based service trigger. Finally, a real-life industrial case study is provided to verify the feasibility and effectiveness.