Disclosed by the present application are a positioning method and apparatus, which are used to improve indoor positioning performance and precision without occupying a large amount of system resources. At a positioning server side, a positioning method provided by an embodiment of the present application comprises: acquiring a positioning capability supported by a user equipment (UE), and determining, according to the positioning capability, that the UE may obtain a positioning measurement value by means of detecting a positioning reference signal ioPRS that is used for indoor/outdoor positioning; acquiring positioning auxiliary data comprising ioPRS configuration data, and sending the positioning auxiliary data to the UE; acquiring the positioning measurement value that is provided by the UE and that is acquired on the basis of the ioPRS, and using the positioning measurement value to position the UE.

A method for locating an element which can be transported by aircraft includes, for a first position of an aircraft: a) transmitting, from an antenna located in the aircraft, a first message intended for the transportable element; b) receiving, on the antenna, a second message transmitted by the transportable element upon receipt of the first message; c) obtaining a travel time of the first and second messages; d) determining a distance from the travel times; e) determining that the element is inside the aircraft if the distance is less than a value and that the element is outside the aircraft if the distance is greater than the value.

A system comprising: a transmitting device configured to transmit, in at least one plane, a plurality of directional signals each covering an angular sector, wherein every adjacent pair of said angular sectors overlaps partially to create a logical sector, and wherein each of said plurality of directional signals encodes at least an indication regarding each said logical sector associated therewith; and a client device comprising program instructions executable by at least one hardware processor to: cause the client device to receive at least some of said plurality of directional signals, calculate a signal strength level (RSL) value for each of said received directional signals, and determine that said client device is located within a said logical sector, when two highest said RSL values (i) are related to two said directional signals associated with said logical sector, and (ii) are within a specified value range of each other.

A vehicle control assembly for an automatic control of a vehicle in an enclosed spatial field. The enclosed special field includes objects and floor area portions. The vehicle includes a drive device and a vehicle control device which controls the vehicle. The vehicle control assembly includes a navigation system for determining a position of the vehicle in the enclosed spatial field, a room sensor system with at least one 3D sensor assembly which is arranged in the enclosed spatial field, and a room control unit to which each of the room sensor system and the vehicle control device are controllably connected. The room sensor system detects a predeterminable size of each of the vehicle, each of the objects, and each person, respectively. The room control unit associates an at least two-dimensional safety region with the vehicle, with each of the objects, and with each person.

An apparatus of rapid-positioning with curved light surface includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter can emit an optical signal to the receiver. The receiver can receive an optical signal emitted by the transmitter. The apparatus of rapid-positioning with curved light surface determines a position of the receiver according to the optical signal received by the receiver. The transmitter includes: a light emitter capable of emitting optical signals of at least two flicker frequencies; and a hollow hemispherical cover provided with fixed-angle opaque sections and variable-angle opaque sections, and regions between the fixed-angle opaque sections and the variable-angle opaque sections being light transmission regions. Therefore, the apparatus and method of rapid-positioning with curved light surface provided by the present application can accurately position the receiver, and the receiver can be placed on an object surface to receive the optical signal of the transmitter, so as to perform an accurate indoor positioning. Therefore, in an intelligent production environment, a robot can accurately assist to assemble and convey materials and products. The apparatus of rapid-positioning with curved light surface of the present application can perform multiple positioning during one rotation, which can make the positioning faster.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for determining item availability are provided. A computer implemented method for determining item availability in a shopping space comprising: receiving a request for an item for purchase from a customer, querying an inventory database to determine whether the item for purchase is in stock, in an event that the item for purchase is not in stock according to the inventory database: determining an out of stock response to present to the customer, in an event that the item for purchase is in stock according the inventory database: instructing a motorized transport unit to travel to a display space in the shopping space corresponding to the item for the purchase, determining whether the item is available in the display space based on information captured by one or more sensors of the motorized transport unit, and in an event that the item for purchase is not available in the display space: determining an item unavailable response to present to the customer.

During a setup phase, a computing device determines a map of an area including one or more regions. Signals are received from a plurality of ultra-wideband (UWB) nodes and a plurality of Bluetooth Low energy (BLE) nodes in the area, relayed through one or more agents at one or more positions of the area. A precision map is created based on a correlation between the received signals from the UWB nodes and the received signals from the BLE nodes. Locations to place the plurality of BLE nodes are identified based on the precision map.

The present invention relates to a communication technique for convergence of IoT technology and a 5G communication system for supporting a higher data transfer rate beyond a 4G system, and a system therefor. Also, the present invention provides a method for determining a location of a base station, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, from a terminal, a first message including location information of the terminal; and determining location information of the base station on the basis of the received location information of the terminal.

Methods and apparatuses are provided for use in monitoring product placement within a shopping facility. Some embodiments provide an apparatus configured to determine product placement conditions within a shopping facility, comprising: a transceiver configured to wirelessly receive communications; a product monitoring control circuit coupled with the transceiver; a memory coupled with the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to: obtain a composite three-dimensional (3D) scan mapping corresponding to at least a select area of the shopping facility and based on a series of 3D scan data; evaluate the 3D scan mapping to identify multiple product depth distances; and identify, from the evaluation of the 3D scan mapping, when one or more of the multiple product depth distances is greater than a predefined depth distance threshold from the reference offset distance of the product support structure.

A method and apparatus for locating a target in a venue is described. A backend controller activates transmitters in a venue to send burst signals using a double symmetry configuration formed of a plurality of separate transmitter groups. The backend controller activates the transmitters into a second, different configuration for bursting. The resulting location signal information from each configuration is obtained by the backend controller, which then more accurately determines the location of the target in the venue.