About IPS in ArcGIS Indoors

Wayne Chen

Hi All, 

I have ArcGIS Indoors license. Recently, I bought some cheap Beacons for testing. 

I'm extremely confused about IPS and how to use it in ArcGIS Indoors.

To the best of my knowledge, the signal send from beacon is RSSI which shows how strong is the signal. 

It begs a question that how does ArcGIS Indoors know the actual distance from the my device to the beacon?

Am I supposed to develop my own app to define the location and distance of those beacons? 

Or should I set up it by purchasing indoors.rs's solution?

Is  it possible to elaborate the process of setting up beacons steps by steps?

Indoors.rs constantly show in ArcGIS Indoors help page. Does that mean I have to buy their solution to enable IPS? 

TomSöderberg

Hi Wayne,

yes, BLE beacons are using RSSI and therefore you need also to create a separate RSSI radio map based on your beacon setup (Tx power) & locations - if you change either, you need to create the map based on the new configuration. ArcGIS Indoors is using radio map information to define/specify the location.

If your organization uses the Indoo.rs IPS, you need to have account to Indoo.rs web site where you're able to create the building & floor configuration and create the radio map / floor you're using. You need to do several recordings in the property & floor with Indoo.rs MMT tool (seprate mobile app). Specific instruction to do this can be found from the application documentation. With the tools you update the recordings one by one to your Indoo.rs account where you finally run the "SLAM" to produce the final map to be used with ArcGIS Indoors.

ArcGIS Indoors itself needs some configuration settings to be set regarding to this (e.g. building id etc.). These are configured with ArcGIS Pro Indoors geoprocessing tools to the AIIM Indoors Configuration table - this is described here:
Configure the indoor positioning system—ArcGIS Indoors | Documentation 

When you have defined the AIIM in ArcGIS Pro, you just generate the MMPK from ArcGIS Pro and upload/share it to your ArcGIS Enterprise Portal. After this you're able to use the Esri ArcGIS Indoors mobile application (available for Android and iOS) and load the map to your device.

Naturally, you're able to implement a custom mobile application too and using Indoo.rs SDK to implement any functionalities if you want.

Setting up the BLE beacons are quite straightforward process - if you don't have to calibrate those BLE's to "fit" in your environment. Typically just rip off the protectors from the battery and the backside sticker and place them on the wall - about at the same height so that at each location in your building have signals from at least four (4) beacon. If possible, don't line up the beacons to get some variations - use common sense. Many beacon provider offers also some mobile apps to help managing and configuring the beacons, if needed - if possible, take advantage of these. There are many free apps too, which are quite handy. 

BR,

-Tom