We build the positioning your operation can rely on

Q: What is an indoor positioning system (RTLS)?

An indoor positioning system - also called a real-time location system, or RTLS - continuously tracks the position of assets, vehicles, robots, or people inside buildings, where GPS doesn't work. It combines fixed anchors, tags on the tracked objects, ranging algorithms, and a location engine that turns coordinates into events and workflows. needCode designs and deploys these systems end to end, from custom hardware to integration with the systems that run your operation.

Q: How accurate is UWB indoor positioning?

UWB indoor positioning delivers centimetre-level accuracy under good conditions, which is why it's the technology of choice where precision matters - robot localisation, tool tracking, safety zones. Real-world accuracy depends on anchor placement, environment, and whether the target is static or moving, which is why needCode measures accuracy on-site during a feasibility study rather than quoting a datasheet figure. Sensor fusion with IMU and LiDAR keeps positioning solid where radio alone degrades.

Q: Should we use UWB, BLE, or WiFi for indoor positioning?

UWB is the right choice when you need centimetre-level accuracy and reliability in demanding environments; BLE (including AoA) suits room- or zone-level tracking at lower infrastructure cost; WiFi positioning offers coarse coverage using existing access points but metre-level accuracy at best. Many systems combine them - UWB for precision zones, BLE for wide-area presence. needCode builds all three and advises on the mix based on your accuracy target and budget, not on what we happen to sell.

Q: Does indoor positioning work without GPS?

Yes - indoor positioning is designed precisely for GPS-denied environments: inside buildings, underground, in metal-dense facilities, and in situations where GPS is jammed or spoofed. UWB anchors provide the local reference frame that satellites can't, and sensor fusion carries positioning through gaps in radio coverage. This is why the same foundation serves warehouses, autonomous robots, and defence applications alike.

Q: How many anchors does an RTLS need?

Anchor count depends on the space, the required accuracy, and the ranging method - a TDoA system covering a large warehouse has a very different anchor plan than a high-precision TWR zone. As a working intuition, anchors are planned per coverage cell with overlapping visibility, and the plan must account for racking, machinery, and building structure. needCode determines the real number with an on-site survey, because anchor plans drawn on an empty floor plan are the most common source of failed deployments.

Q: Does UWB positioning work in metal-heavy environments like warehouses?

Yes, with proper engineering - UWB's wide bandwidth makes it far more resilient to reflections and interference than BLE or WiFi, but metal racking, forklifts, and machinery still demand deliberate anchor placement, NLOS mitigation, and on-site tuning. This is exactly the environment where demo-grade systems collapse and engineered systems hold. needCode has deployed UWB where heavy machinery and metallic structures defeat other approaches, and tunes ranging on-site with its own UWB protocol sniffer.

Q: Can indoor positioning integrate with our WMS, ERP, or robot fleet?

Yes - integration is where positioning becomes business value, and needCode treats it as part of the system, not an afterthought. The location engine delivers zones, events, and workflows into WMS and ERP platforms via standard interfaces (MQTT, REST), feeds robot fleets and digital twins, and drives safety and process automation. A positioning system that stays on its own dashboard changes nothing about your operation.

Q: How many tags can an RTLS support?

A well-designed UWB RTLS scales to thousands of tags in one facility, but scale must be engineered - ranging schemes, air-time budgets, and tag update rates all trade off against density. Systems that demo well with twenty tags routinely fail at two thousand because that trade-off was never designed. needCode engineers tag density, update rate, and battery life together, against your real asset counts.

Q: Why do RTLS pilots fail to reach production?

Most RTLS pilots fail in one of three ways: accuracy collapses when the pilot zone's clean conditions meet the real facility; the system doesn't scale beyond a few hundred tags; or the location data never integrates with the WMS, ERP, or fleet systems that would act on it. All three are system-engineering failures, not technology failures. needCode designs for the production environment from the first site survey, which is what separates a pilot that scales from a demo that ends.

Q: Can needCode deliver an indoor positioning system end to end?

Yes - needCode covers the full system: on-site feasibility and RF survey, custom tag and anchor hardware on Qorvo QM33/QM35 silicon, ranging and fusion algorithms, the location engine, integration with IT/OT systems, and deployment through calibration and scale-up. As a certified Qorvo partner with the largest dedicated UWB team in Central Europe, we work at the ranging layer itself rather than on top of a black box. One team owns the outcome from silicon to your WMS.

needCode designs and deploys indoor positioning systems that hold up where GPS doesn't reach and demos fall apart - centimetre-level UWB RTLS, fused with IMU and LiDAR, resilient to metal, machinery, and non-line-of-sight, and integrated with the systems that run your operation. For robots, warehouses, factories, and GPS-denied environments. From an EU-based, certified Qorvo partner with the largest dedicated UWB team in Central Europe.

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How indoor positioning works

We work with Industry Leaders

Indoor positioning fails in the gap between the demo and the deployment

Getting a tag to report a position on an empty floor is easy - every vendor demo does it. The system that has to work is a different problem: accuracy that holds when the space fills with steel racking, forklifts, and people; coverage that scales from one pilot zone to a whole facility with thousands of tags; and location data that actually reaches the systems doing the work - the WMS, the robot fleet, the safety layer. Most indoor positioning projects don't fail at the physics. They fail in that gap.

needCode builds the kind that crosses it. We engineer the full system - anchors and tags, ranging algorithms, sensor fusion, and integration - and tune it to your building, your interference, and your operation, not to a datasheet. Where GPS stops at the door, this is the layer autonomy, safety, and efficiency are built on.

Accurate where it matters

Centimetre-level UWB ranging, NLOS-resilient, tuned on-site to your environment - not quoted from a lab.

Works where GPS doesn't

Indoors, underground, in metal-dense and GPS-denied environments - the places operations actually run.

A system, not a feed

Fusion, scale, and integration with WMS, ERP, and robot fleets - engineered from pilot to full facility.

How an indoor positioning system works

A production RTLS is four parts working together. We engineer all four - which is what separates a system from a demo.

Anchors & Tags

Fixed anchors form the reference grid; tags on assets, vehicles, robots, or people measure against it. We design both - miniaturised, low-power custom tags on Qorvo QM33/QM35 silicon and PoE-powered anchors planned for your real building, not an idealised floor plan.

Ultra-Wideband

Asset Tags

Ranging & Positioning Algorithms

TWR, TDoA, and AoA ranging turn radio time-of-flight into position, with the algorithm chosen per use case - precision, tag density, battery life, and infrastructure cost pull in different directions. The choice is an engineering decision, and getting it wrong is the most expensive mistake in RTLS.

UWB RTLS Design & Deployment

Sensor Fusion & Resilience

UWB fused with IMU and LiDAR odometry keeps position solid through non-line-of-sight, reflections, and anchor outages - the conditions that collapse single-source systems the day the racking goes in. This is the layer that decides whether accuracy survives contact with the real environment.

Sensors & Sensor Fusion

Location Engine & Integration

Raw coordinates aren't business value - the location engine turns them into events, zones, and workflows delivered into your WMS, ERP, robot fleet, or digital twin. We integrate with the IT and OT systems you already run, because positioning that stays on its own dashboard changes nothing.

Edge Computing & Cloud Integration

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Where indoor positioning goes

The same positioning foundation carries very different operations. We've built the wireless depth each one needs.

Autonomous Robots & Humanoids

The positioning layer a robot's autonomy stands on - centimetre-level location where cameras fail in variable light and occlusion, fused with the robot's own odometry, indoors and GPS-denied.

Robotics & Humanoids

Defence & GPS-Denied Operations

Positioning that keeps working when GPS is jammed, spoofed, or simply absent - underground, inside structures, and in contested environments - from an EU-based partner where data handling and sovereignty matter.

Defence & Aerospace

Warehouse, Logistics & Manufacturing

Real-time location for pallets, tooling, work-in-progress, and vehicles across metal-dense facilities - feeding the WMS and process automation rather than another standalone dashboard.

Industrial IoT & RTLS

Warehouse Positioning

Asset Tracking

People Safety & Indoor Navigation

Location-aware safety zones, evacuation visibility, and wayfinding in complex facilities - where knowing exactly where people are is a safety system, not a convenience.

Employee Safety Monitoring

Indoor Navigation

Why positioning projects come to needCode

The UWB depth positioning depends on

As the largest dedicated UWB team in Central Europe and a certified Qorvo partner with nine hardware-platform bring-ups, we work at the ranging layer itself - not on top of someone else's black box. When accuracy degrades on-site, we can see why, and fix it.

Full-stack: from custom tags to your WMS

We engineer the whole system - miniaturised low-power tags, PoE anchors, high-density performance in crowded RF, the location engine, and the integration into IT/OT. One team owns the outcome, so there's no gap between hardware, firmware, and the data your operation consumes.

Proven in hostile environments

We've deployed UWB where heavy machinery, metal structures, and RF interference defeat other systems - and we tune ranging on-site with our own UWB protocol sniffer, a tool the silicon vendors don't provide.

Engineered from pilot to full facility

Anchor planning from a real site survey, algorithms chosen for your tag count and battery targets, and a scale path designed in from day one - so the pilot that works is the same system that runs the whole building.

Four ways to bring needCode in

From a feasibility study to a standing team. We match the engagement to where the project is.

01 Site Survey & Feasibility (PoC)

Duration:
4-8 weeks
Best for:
Validating accuracy, coverage, and cost in your environment before committing - with results measured on-site, not promised from a datasheet
Deliverable:
On-site RF study, measured accuracy report, anchor plan, system architecture, cost model, leadership readout

02 System Design & Deployment

Duration:
Phased
Best for:
Designing and deploying the full RTLS - anchors, tags, algorithms, location engine - tuned to your facility
Deliverable:
A working positioning system, calibrated and validated on-site, with documentation and handover

03 Integration & Scale

Duration:
Phased
Best for:
Connecting positioning to the WMS, ERP, robot fleet, or safety systems, and scaling from pilot zone to full facility
Deliverable:
Integrated data flows, geofencing and event logic, scaled anchor infrastructure, performance validation at target density

04 Embedded Team

Duration:
Multi-year, retainer-based
Best for:
Product and operations teams who want a dedicated positioning squad inside their programme
Deliverable:
An embedded team in your cadence - the model behind the 30-FTE Qorvo programme

What we ship on

We pick the ranging method, silicon, and integration path that match your accuracy target, tag count, and budget.

Ranging & standards

UWB TWR / TDoA / AoA

IEEE 802.15.4z / 4ab

FiRa

omlox

Silicon

Qorvo QM33 / QM35

legacy Decawave DW1000 / DW3000

NXP Trimension

Nordic (BLE companion)

Fusion & resilience

UWB + IMU

LiDAR odometry

NLOS mitigation

anchor-failure handling

Infrastructure

Custom low-power tags

PoE anchors

high-density RF design

site survey & calibration

Integration

WMS / ERP connectors

MQTT / REST

geofencing & event engine

digital twin feeds

ROS 2

Tools

UWB Protocol Sniffer (in-house)

automated RF test rigs

Case studies

Indoor positioning is where needCode's proof is most direct - deployed systems, custom hardware, and the silicon-level depth behind them.

Qorvo: RF Leadership

Context: Rapid scaling for new chipset bring-up.

Scale: Grew from <10 to 30 FTEs.
Output: Supported bring-up of 9 new hardware platforms (SDKs, Drivers, Stacks).
Retention: Zero-churn core team retained for 5+ years.

Dedicated Development Center for RF Solutions

Bluetooth Mesh Smart Lighting Control System

Smart Lighting: Core R&D Extension

Context: Client needed deep, specialized expertise to pivot from proprietary tech to a new global standard.

Service: Deployed a dedicated squad of embedded engineers to function as the client's core R&D team.
Output: Co-authored official Bluetooth SIG protocols and delivered the world’s first certified BLE Mesh stack.
Value: Enabled the client to secure Series A funding and defined the industry standard for smart buildings.

Creative Werks: Innovation rescue

Context: Hardware obsolescence threatened production shutdown.

Action: Full-stack takeover (PCB redesign + Firmware + Mobile App).
ROI: 1230% ($1.6M value generated).
Speed: Payback period of 2–3 months.

NeedCode-case study - IoT Solution for Boat Lift Modernization - cover2s

PowerPollen: AgTech automation

Context: Lack of internal expertise stalled a critical automation project.

Action: Re-architected system using unified MCU and ISOBUS standards.
ROI: 13.8x ($2.9M value generated).
Impact: Enabled $1.9M increase in harvester value.

Strategic Partnership

needCode is an official business partner of Qorvo, bringing over 8 years of proven expertise and trusted service to the technology sector.

Check our performance

Members of the UWB Alliance

In 2025 we became a member of the UWB Alliance. This strategic step reinforces our commitment to pioneering Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology.

Proudly Certified for Excellence and Security

needCode is officially certified for:
ISO 9001:2015 – Quality Management
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 – Information Security

ISO certifications reflect our focus on delivering reliable IoT solutions, smart product development, and secure technology services.

Testimonials

“I think the key takeaway from needCode is their ability to adapt and understand the customer's requirements. That took away probably a large portion of what could have been a lot of development time and expense for both companies.”

Bob Folkestad

President at Creative Werks

“One aspect that truly sets needCode apart is its profound expertise in firmware development. Their proficiency in various programming languages, embedded systems and hardware architecture is truly impressive. When faced with difficult problems, their strong problem-solving skills and analytical mindset shine through, allowing them to overcome obstacles with remarkable ease.”

Semeh Sarhan

CEO at Xtrava

“I worked with needCode while leading the NWTN-Berlin team in 2018. A big chunk for our FW development has been outsourced to them and they had proven to iterate very quickly, following specs and deliver on time. It was great working with them. I recommend working with needCode’s team on any Embedded SW development.”

Marco Salvioli Mariani

CTO at NWTN Berlin GmbH

“needCode Team proved to be one of the best engineers I have ever met. The part I like the most about the team is the more difficult an obstacle seems to be, the more motivated they were to find a solution and a way forward.”

Szymon Słupik

CTO at Silvair

“needCode is an outstanding partner. Their quick follow-up, scalability, and extensive professional network set them apart. Their expertise in wireless technologies has been valuable, supporting us from low-level drivers to architecture discussions.”

Tim Allemeersch

Director at Qorvo, Inc.

“needCode did a great job improving the firmware of the Vai Kai connected toys and developing new features, surpassing our expectations multiple times. I would definitely recommend hiring Bartek and needCode for the embedded software projects!”

Matas Petrikas

CEO & Co-founder at Vai Kai UG

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