Ultra-wideband location engine for self-shopping devices

A self-shopping system, comprising:

• a processor-based locator system;
• a plurality of readers fixedly positioned within a shopping environment, each of the plurality of readers coupled to the processor-based locator system over at least one data communication channel and comprising:
• at least one reader processor;
• a first wireless communication transceiver communicatively coupled to the at least one reader processor, the wireless communications transceiver including a first transmitter that sends data over a first wireless communication channel and a first receiver that receives data over the first wireless communication channel, the first communication channel utilizing signals other than ultra-wideband signals;
• a second receiver communicatively coupled to the at least one reader processor, the second receiver receives ultra-wideband signals;
• and
• at least one nontransitory processor-readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one reader processor and which stores at least one of processor-executable instructions or data that when executed by the at least one reader processor, cause the at least one reader processor to:
• send, by the first transmitter, an activation command to a selected one of a plurality of self-shopping terminals over the first wireless communication channel;
• receive, by the second receiver, ultra-wideband signals from an ultra-wideband tag of the selected self-shopping terminal;
• determine a ranging value indicative of a distance between the self-shopping terminal and the respective reader using the received ultra-wideband signals;
• and
• send the respective determined ranging value to the processor-based locator system over the at least one data communication channel.