Indoor location system with energy consumption controlled mobile transceiver units

An indoor location system for supporting a manufacturing control of process courses in an industrial manufacturing of workpieces in a manufacturing plant in which a group of objects are each independently movable within the manufacturing plant, the indoor location system comprising:

• a plurality of mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers including a position signal module configured to be operable in a localizing mode for determining a position of a selected mobile transceiver of the mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers being spatially assignable to a corresponding object from the group of objects,
• wherein the indoor location system is configured to:
• determine the position of the selected mobile transceiver based at least on runtimes of electromagnetic signals between the mobile transceivers,
• output a deactivation control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of at least one of the mobile transceivers when participation of the at least one mobile transceiver in position determination operations is not required, and
• output an activation control signal for activating the localizing mode of the position signal module of the at least one of the mobile transceivers from a deactivated state when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in a position determination operation is required.

A manufacturing control system for controlling manufacturing processes in a manufacturing plant in which a group of objects are each independently movable within the manufacturing plant, the manufacturing control system comprising:

• an indoor location system comprising:
• a plurality of mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers including a position signal module configured to be operable in a localizing mode for determining a position of a selected mobile transceiver of the mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers being spatially assignable to a corresponding object from the group of objects,
• wherein the indoor location system is configured to:
• determine the position of the selected mobile transceiver based at least on runtimes of electromagnetic signals between the mobile transceivers,
• output a deactivation control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of at least one of the mobile transceivers when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in position determination operations is not required, and
• output an activation control signal for activating the localizing mode of the position signal module of the at least one of the mobile transceivers from a deactivated state when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in a position determination operation is required;
• and
• a manufacturing execution system configured to assign the position of the selected mobile transceiver to a corresponding object assigned to the selected mobile transceiver and to include the position of the selected mobile transceiver in the manufacturing control system,
• wherein the indoor location system is configured to perform the position determination operations and control an operation of the selected mobile transceiver.

A method of a manufacturing control of process courses in an industrial processing of workpieces in a manufacturing plant in which a group of objects are each independently movable within the manufacturing plant, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of mobile transceivers, wherein each of the mobile transceivers includes a position signal module operable in a localizing mode for determining a position of a selected mobile transceiver of the mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers being spatially assignable to a corresponding object from the group of objects;
• deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of at least one of the mobile transceivers when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in position determination operations is not required;
• and
• after the deactivating, activating the localizing mode of the position signal module of the at least one of the mobile transceivers from a deactivated state when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in a position determination operation is required.