Real-Time Location Solution (RTLS) is a growing market and has demonstrated immense usability and relevance in current business scenarios. As a result, the market has gained momentum and offers high growth potential. As technologies and solutions have evolved over the years, many emerging technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), passive radio-frequency identification (RFID), and Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) have been gaining prominence for RTLS solutions across industries. Of course, there are the other important solutions based on protocols such as Wi-Fi and active RFID, which have already found high acceptance across industries. Additionally, protocols such as ultrasound, infrared, ZigBee, and GPS are used for RTLS or indoor location solutions.
RTLS perfectly fits into new-age business needs as it is capable of real-time data acquisition based on which, businesses can make important decisions. It is an important business enhancer and preferred for tracking the location and status of assets and people, such as warehouses, yards, and hospitals, within a given area. Healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and aerospace and defense are sectors that extensively use RTLS. It is also gaining prominence in sectors such as retail, hospitality, education, and livestock management.
Embedding sensors into RTLS tags takes the technology one step further by enabling the tracking, locating, and sensing of the condition of the materials tracked. This enables companies to make smart decisions throughout the value chain and much closer to the material and its environment. RTLS sensor tags help convert the visibility offered into actionable data and predictive changes by providing additional information about the environment. Looking into the boxes without opening them is the biggest advantage that these sensors offer. The pallets and cartons containing perishable items are tagged with sensor tags, which monitor conditions such as heat, cold, humidity, and jolting in transition. The condition of perishable foods, drugs, medicines, and vaccine samples can be monitored at any point in the supply chain. Adequate precaution can be taken while transporting and handling hazardous chemicals and explosive materials by using RFID sensor tags, thereby preventing fatal accidents. Defense and security agencies benefit by using sensor tags in wars, aircrafts, and ammunition, which makes them well-equipped to provide better security and avoid terrorist attacks.
Given the benefits that RTLS brings into businesses across industries, it has become a preferred technology for process automation. As industry participants focus more on developing robust, error-free, utilitarian, and efficient solutions, the inclination will be to use the technology to get a better return on investment (RoI). Additionally, as the cost of the technology decreases, more businesses, including small and medium enterprises, will be able to use RTLS to track their resources. With its greater affordability driving the market, the technology is most likely to be adopted globally in the short term. Although RTLS is a smaller market compared to the alternate technologies available today, it offers immense growth opportunities as it stands out in terms of performance and value addition. The outlook for the global RTLS market is thus bright across all industries.
