lightweight, low power, sensors for locating aerospace ground equipment and other maintenance assets over wide areas in an industrial environment

Air Force maintenance efforts use mobile aerospace ground equipment (AGE). To facilitate 100% AGE availability a cost-effective, reliable, and upgradable innovation to the existing Real Time Location System (RTLS) and Air Force Global Enterprise Tracker (AFGET) is needed. The existing AFGET infrastructure allows asset location visibility in real-time, but over time has experienced limitations requiring innovations. A battery powered tag limits the lifespan and can reduce system reliability. Historical and future tag concerns due to obsolescence, availability, range, and accuracy, can add risk to tag deployment and AGE maintenance. ALAE Solutions proposes to review the current AF RTLS, evaluate available Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technologies, design/test a location sensor technology/system, and develop an innovative locating solution to improve the Air Force tracking capabilities and extend the life of the system and sensors. New RFID technologies allow assets to be tracked over a 5 to even 20-mile range. However, there is no guarantee these systems can be dropped into a Government controlled environment nor that they will be compatible with the existing AF infrastructure or program modernization objectives.