Mobile Zone Hierarchy

The DeepHub® allows proximity zones to participate in the same parent-child hierarchy used by trackables (see Trackable Hierarchy). This makes it possible to automatically keep a proximity zone's position in sync with a moving entity, such as a forklift or a vehicle, without the need for the deprecated Mobile Zone Extension.

Consider a scenario where you have parcels equipped with RFID tags, and you want to keep track of where they are located in your warehouse. A forklift, equipped with an RFID scanner and a UWB tag, transports the parcels. The RFID scanner is represented in the DeepHub as a proximity zone (e.g. of type rfid), and the forklift is represented as a trackable with a UWB location provider attached to it. The UWB tag provides the exact real-time location of the forklift, while the RFID scanner detects the parcels the forklift is carrying.

By setting the RFID zone's parent property to the id of the forklift trackable, the zone's position is automatically updated in real-time whenever the forklift moves. When the forklift drops off parcels at a location, the last known position of the zone reflects where the parcels were left. There is no need to manually update the zone's position or configure custom properties — the hierarchy takes care of it.

This mechanism extends beyond a single parent-child link. Location information propagates to all descendants in a hierarchy. For example, if multiple RFID zones are attached as children to the same forklift trackable, all of them receive location updates when the forklift moves. Zones can also be children of other proximity zones, enabling multi-level hierarchies.

Only zones with a proximity transformation type (e.g. rfid, ibeacon) may have a parent. The parent must be the id of a trackable or another proximity zone. The children field on a zone is read-only and computed automatically from the hierarchy.

Setup and Configuration

Setting up a mobile zone hierarchy requires two steps. First, create a proximity zone representing the positioning system (e.g. an RFID scanner). Then, set the zone's parent property to the id of the trackable or proximity zone whose location it should follow. You can do this through the DeepHub API or the Admin UI.

Creating a Proximity Zone in the DeepHub:

You may create a zone through the DeepHub API or the Admin UI. To do so in the UI:

• Open the Admin UI in your browser.
• Create a new zone by selecting an appropriate technology type (rfid or ibeacon) and floor level. You do not need to choose an exact position on the map, as the position will be updated automatically. Simply choose a nearby location.
• Set a unique Foreign ID, for example "forklift-123-rfid".
• Click Save to create the zone.

Assigning a Parent:

To enable the zone to follow a trackable's position, set the zone's parent property to the trackable's id. This can be done when creating or updating the zone via the API, or through the Admin UI by selecting an entity as the parent of the zone.

An example zone with a parent trackable configured:

{
  "id": "ffffffff-bce8-6c23-e342-80bd5c938775",
  "foreign_id": "rfid-scanner-forklift-123",
  "type": "rfid",
  "floor": 4,
  "name": "Zone R (RFID)",
  "position": {
    "type": "Point",
    "coordinates": [0, 0]
  },
  "radius": 2.0,
  "parent": "14604338-5e74-4931-9730-3645f8d44aa4"
}

You should now see the zone moving in the DeepHub UI whenever the parent trackable relocates. If the parent is removed, the zone's parent property is automatically cleared and the zone remains at its last known position.

note

The parent property cannot be used in combination with the deprecated Mobile Zone Extension properties (com.hdm.hub.zone.autozoneupdate.trackables / com.hdm.hub.zone.autozoneupdate.providers). Likewise, a zone that has autozone update properties set cannot be used as a parent by other entities. Circular hierarchies (e.g. A is parent of B, and B is parent of A) are detected and rejected by the DeepHub.

Mobile Zone Extension (deprecated)

Deprecated

The Mobile Zone Extension (MZE) is deprecated. Use Mobile Zone Hierarchy (the zone parent property) instead.

MZE kept a proximity zone “mobile” by connecting it to location updates from a trackable or location provider using custom zone properties.

Migration

• Replace MZE configuration with a zone parent:
  • Create/update the proximity zone as usual (e.g. rfid, ibeacon).
  • Set the zone’s parent to the id of the trackable (or another proximity zone) whose location it should follow.
• Remove the deprecated MZE properties from the zone:
  • com.hdm.hub.zone.autozoneupdate.trackables
  • com.hdm.hub.zone.autozoneupdate.providers

note

Zones with a parent are not allowed to have MZE autozone update properties, and zones with MZE autozone update properties cannot be used as parents.