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RuBee in the News
Recent Articles about Visible and RuBee

Procter & Gamble Adopts RuBee Wireless For Part Changeovers

Nov 12, 2019 - Automation World IIOT
SmartParts, a RuBee wireless device for harsh environment, machine-to-machine communication from Visible Assets Inc., has passed trials at Procter & Gamble for identifying part changes on high-speed packaging machine
Sandia Labs Declassifies RF Safety Report for RuBee Use on Sensitive Electro Explosive Devices.

July 20 2018 - Straham, NH,
This Sandia report addresses the radiation from a RuBee LW RFID technology loop antenna coupling to systems that may have sensitive EEDs that may be as low as 45 mW no-fire device. The magnetic field coupling from a RuBee loop antenna to an exaggerated area of a shorted lead loop that an idealized unshielded wire configuration is shown to be negligible. Hazard from use of a lithium coin battery in RuBee tag is also addressed. Click on title for copy of the report.



Visible Assets to Speak at DoD Logistics Technology Summit
Sep 13-14 2016 - Alexandria VA,

The Defense Logistics Technology Summit will focus on optimizing the supply chain in order to support a leaner, more agile military force. Some of the broader topics that will be discussed in this forum will include: near-term prospective uses for additive manufacturing and 3D printing, opportunities to further utilize the IoT in support of military logistics, the increased need for asset visibility and resource management technology, strategies to further reduce the military logistics footprint and efforts to improve the mobility and sustainment of resources as they pass through the military logistics supply chain. Click here for Agenda.


Dutch Consortium to Track Steel Plates via RuBee Tags
Jan 2016 - RFID Journal

The system, from Visible Assets, will enable Eagle Eye Innovation—a consortium of 30 rental agencies—to track the locations of plates at construction sites.

Automating the armory: New weapons tracker successfully tested by U.S. Naval Forces
Oct. 2015 - DesingFax.net
A new, advanced weapons maintenance system developed by Lockheed Martin and a company called Visible Assets could potentially save the U.S. Navy millions by automating the time-consuming process of weapons tracking and use.

Ru Bee - RuBee Disadvantages and Advantages
Oct. 2015
RuBee Disadvantages and Advantages. The major disadvantage RuBee has over other protocols is speed and packet size. The RuBee protocol is limited to 1,200 baud in existing applications. The IEEE 1902.1 specifies 1,200 baud. The protocol could go to 9,600 baud with some loss ofrange. However, most visibility applications work well at 1,200 baud. Packet size is limited tens to hundreds of bytes. RuBee's design forgoes high bandwidth, high speed communication because most visibility applications do not require them.

Automating The Armory: New Weapons Tracker Successfully Tested By U.S. Naval Forces

Feb 2015


DENVER, Feb. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- A new, advanced weapons maintenance system developed by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Visible Assets, Inc. that manages, diagnoses and tracks sensitive assets such as munitions could potentially save the U.S. Navy millions by automating the time-consuming process of weapons tracking.

U.S. Navy Evaluates Weapons Tracker

July 2015


An advanced maintenance system developed by Lockheed Martin could potentially save the U.S. Navy millions of dollars by automating the process of weapons tracking. The RuBee Weapon Shot Center system is capable of remotely tracking sensitive munitions equipment. In contrast to traditional tacking methods based on radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tags, which can’t always be read through metals or liquids, the RuBee system operates by means of electromagnetic (EM) tags and magnetism and are not subject to the blocking and interference that impacts RFID tags

Dr. Rob Smith, Vice President of C4ISR, Lockheed Martin Radio Interview Discussing RuBee Defense and Industrial Applications Aired April 15th.
April 15th
Tracking munitions is a costly and time-consuming process for military units. They can't afford to waste cartridges, missiles or grenades. Lockheed Martin has developed a new system that works around many of the challenges of tracking RFID tags remotely. It's called the Rubee Weapon Shot Counter, and it could potentially save the Defense Department millions. Dr. Rob Smith, the vice president of C4ISR Systems for Lockheed Martin's Information Systems and Global Solutions, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to dive deeper into the Rubee's uses. Click Here to Listen to Interview

What Is the Deference Between RuBee and RFID
Aug 08, 2014 RFIDJournal
RuBee (IEEE standard 1902.1) is a form of radio frequency identification (though its creator does not agree with me on this point.). It uses low-frequency (HF) 131 kHz radio waves and active transceivers that communicate peer-to-peer. Different RFID systems use different communications methods. Ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) systems employ backscatter, in which energy is received by a tag and reflected back. As a result of this, UHF can cause problems in an environment containing a lot of metal, which reflects energy and can cause the signal to bounce around.

Lockheed Martin Offers RuBee Solution for Monitoring Munitions
Feb 21, 2014 National Defense
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Tracking items in warehouses is a big problem for the military, which cannot use radio frequency identification systems on explosives and munitions. A product jointly created by Lockheed Martin and Visible Assets Inc. could fix that problem by using magnetic tags to identify items.


New Logistics Systems Could Help Military Keep Tabs on Volatile Munitions
Feb 20, 2014 RFIDJournal
VAI has been improving its hardware, says John Stevens, the company's CEO and chairman, and Lockheed Martin will offer the latest version of tags and readers—which can have a read range of 70 feet, and have been tested at a distance of 30 feet underground in optimal conditions (though in the munitions-tracking use case, the standards for safety around explosives result in a shorter read range). The company has been focusing on improving the technology's performance within the military's Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation Ordnance (HERO) standards, and has accomplished a zero Safe Separation Distance (SSD) standard, signifying that the tag can safely be read on potentially explosive devices.


ID Technology Goes Where RF Cannot
October 10, 2012, Microwaves & RF

Radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tags are widely used for inventory and identification chores. But in some environments, such as around explosives, an RF signal might trigger an unwanted reaction. Another identification solution is needed for these cases, and it is turning out to be one based on magnetism: RuBee. Also known as the IEEE 1902.1 standard, RuBee uses totally passive tags and base stations that emit magnetic energy at very low levels. It has proven its worth around explosives and weapons inventory.

ID Technology Leans On Magnetic Waves
September 27, 2012, Defense Electronics
Wireless technology has been a boon to automatic identification processes—for example, in the form of radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tags to manage large stores of inventory. But RF/microwave energy may not always be the safest option for such tasks. For keeping track of ammunition and other hazardous materials that might turn explosive if exposed to the wrong form of energy, Visible Assets has developed wireless RuBee technology based on magnetism.

Secured Explosives
July 27th 2012, Connected World Magazine

When managing goods such as explosives and weapons, careful precautions need to be taken. For example, one concern may be the fact ordnance can detonate through electromagnetic energy. What does this mean for the M2M (machine-to-machine) community? Tags and sensors need to meet certain standards.

U.S. Navy Tests Show Visible Assets' Readers, Tags Can Operate at Zero Safe Separation Distance to Ordnance
July 27th 2012, RFIDJournal
The results, the company reports, confirm that its RuBee tags can be installed directly on or built into explosive devices, and be combined with a variety of sensors, to help diagnose and manage the maintenance, use and decommissioning of munitions.


A novel group authentication for RuBee sensors in wireless sensor networks
October 2011, International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems 2011 - Vol. 4, No.3 pp. 307 - 318
4G, the new generation mobile communication, will be formed among heterogeneous wireless networks, which include Wi-Fi, WPAN, etc. At the beginning of 2007, IEEE developed the new short-distance transmitting standard, IEEE1902.1, also known as RuBee. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how RuBee sensors transmit data through the sensor networks provided by worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX).......

Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant Adopts RuBee RFID to Track Tools, Chemicals
Aug 27th, 2011, RFIDJournal
After five years of testing auto-ID technology solutions, including various RFID, infrared, acoustic and optical tracking systems, nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly company B & W Pantex has selected a RuBee low-frequency RFID system to capture data about the use of tools and chemicals in its Amarillo, Texas, facility known as the Pantex Plant. Pantex provides its highly sensitive services for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. The system that has been piloted for the past five years is provided by Visible Assets.

RuBee (IEEE 1902.1) Identified in Pantex Study as Only Acceptable Technology for Secure Visibility and Management of High Valued Assets
Aug 17th, 2011, Business Wire
STRATHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Visible Assets today announced that RuBee (IEEE 1902.1) wireless technology has been identified by Pantex as the only Auto-ID technology that addresses all of the key risks necessary to provide a viable foundation for an automated material management system. Pantex, the Department of Energy (DoE) plant charged with maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, released the results of a comprehensive five-year independent study that reviewed Auto-ID technologies for use in secure material and asset management at DoE facilities across the USA.

Magnetic-based wireless technology scores big in security and safety
Aug 28th, 2011
In a declassified U.S. Department of Energy report, New Hampshire-based Visible Assets, a secure logistics company, received superior security and safety ratings from Pantex for its RuBee magnetic-based wireless technology. Pantex manages the Sandia Weapons Experimental Test Laboratory in Amarillo, Texas, and spent five years studying RuBee before releasing its comments.

Stratham firm's security technology to help safeguard nuclear weapons
Aug 28th, 2011
STRATHAM — A declassified report created for the Department of Energy is expected to give a healthy boost of international credibility to Visible Assets, a Stratham company that specializes in secure logistics.

Design and Application of RuBee-Based Telemedicine Data Acquisition System
May 18th, 2011
Telemedicine can be defined as the delivery of health care and sharing of medical knowledge over a distance using telecommunication. This paper introduced the new technology of RuBee, RuBee fills the drawback of RFID tags which have no network and cannot be programmable, which has made tremendous progress for the development of the telemedicine. A brief introduction of the RuBee protocol, and analyzed the design of RuBee Router and its application in the Telemedicine System. Provide a snapshot of the applications of electronic patient record, emergency telemedicine and home monitoring etc. in wireless telemedicine systems.

RuBee vs RFID Wireless Sensors Networks and Communication
Feb 15th 2011 - Electronic Buss
RuBee is often confused with RFID Radio Frequency Identification. It does not work like passive or active RFID, and has a protocol more in common with WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee. All passive and active RFID protocols use what is known as backscattered transmission mode. Passive and active RFID tags act like a mirror, and work as reflective transponders. In contrast RuBee, similar to WiFi and Zigbee in that it is peer-to-peer, is a networked transceiver that actually transmits a data signal on demand, but is much slower (6-8 two way packets per second). The main difference between RuBee and WiFi or Zigbee is that RuBee works in the long wavelength band using the magnetic field, whereas typically WiFi and Zigbee works in the VHF, UHF or SHF bands and with the electric field.

RuBee Wireless Magnetic Sensors Network & Magnetic Communication ...
Feb 15, 2011 - Electronics Buss, Recent Article describing sensor technology used by RuBee tags
Fujita Uses Epson/Seiko RuBee Cement Curing Sensors
Feb 6th 2011 - Fujita Web Site -- Immediately prior to the recent Japan earthquake, there was an announcement RuBee in seismic retrofitting.  Epson/Seiko in Japan, and a large Japanese construction company, Fujita, have developed a cement curring system designed to guarantee integrity of cement when it is poured. This is critical in Japan to strengthen rail bridge supports for better earthquake survivability.  RuBee is being used to collect data from the construction process to provide a real time quality assurance monitor of key processes (timely concrete pouring, drying time, etc.). Article is in Japanese but has good diagrams how system works.

Epson Technology Helps Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtles
Jan 10, 2011 - Epson Seiko Kamogawa Sea World, in Chiba, Japan, is working with the Japanese government on a project to protect loggerhead sea turtles, whose Pacific habitat and nesting sites extend only as far northern as the Boso Peninsula, near Kamogawa, in Chiba Prefecture. As part of this project a limited number of eggs laid on the beaches of the Boso Peninsula are collected and transferred to a man-made beach inside Kamogawa Sea World park if the eggs are threatened by adverse weather conditions such as typhoons, or if conditions make it unlikely that the eggs will hatch. Researchers within Kamogawa Sea World study loggerhead biology and ecology and hatch the eggs under conditions that are as natural as possible. The hatchlings are released back into the wild. Epson plays a significant role in this project. As part of its efforts to help preserve biodiversity, Epson uses its sensing technology to measure underground temperatures and monitor nests to detect when buried eggs hatch under the sand of the artificial beach and at sites along the Tojo coastline, which extends along the front of the sea park. (Japanese Version).
Rubee Today: How This Low Frequency Technology is Poised to Advance New Automatic Identification Applications
Oct 2010 by David Wyld. This new, low-frequency auto-ID technology could overcome some of the principal shortcomings of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). RuBee will thus enable smarter medical devices, more secure retail shelves, and better asset management.
Crane Awards Visible Assets, Inc. Contract for Weapon Shot Counters. Solder Systems Oct 2010 Visible Assets, Inc.announced that it has been awarded a five year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division for up to US$5 million for RuBee™ weapon shot counter tags in response to Request For Proposal N0016410RJN87 “Weapon Shot Counter”. They will be used on the SCAR.....
RuBee IEEE 1902.1 Wapedia Summary
Oct. 2010 - RuBee IEEE 1902.1 (IEEE P1902.1) is a two way, active wireless protocol that uses Long Wave (LW) magnetic signals to send and receive short (128 byte) data packets in a local regional network. The protocol is similar to the IEEE 802 protocols which are also known as WiFi (IEEE 802.11), WPAN (IEEE 802.15.4) and Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1), in that RuBee is networked by using on-demand, peer-to-peer, active radiating transceivers. RuBee is different in that it uses a low frequency (131 kHz) carrier.
Global IDentification: Romancing the RuBee (GID 30 - Nov 06)
Nov 2010 - Global Identification
-- Romancing the RuBee - General summary article based on our web site.
by David C. Wyld, Southeastern Louisiana University
An Introduction to RuBee and Its Application in Electric Internet of Things
Nov 2010 -- Power Systems Technology - LI Jian-qi1,LEI Yu-qing1,HOU Bao-su2 (1.China Electric Power Research Institute, Haidian District,Beijing 100192, China; 2.Hebi Electric Power Supply Company, Hebi 458030, Henan Province, China). Identification technology is one of the key technologies of electric internet of things,and is also an important technological measure to implement visualized management of things.As defined in IEEE Std.1902.1-2009, RuBee is a special identification technology that transmits signals by inductive coupling mode. RuBee possesses following advantages: low power consumption, small size and high penetrability. Based on the transmission principle of induction coupling and transmission attenuation characteristics of signals,the theoretical analysis and simulation of RuBee are performed,and it is proved that RuBee possesses the properties of high reliability,high security,easy to operate and high adaptability, and signals can reliably transmitted via such mediums as metal,water,concrete and so on. Due to its strong anti-interference capability,RuBee is very suitable to be applied in high voltage, high temperature and high humidity environment of power system to distinguish identifications of power system and power system communication in complex,harsh,strong-interferential Industrial environment. The application of RuBee technology in the identification of buried position and path of power cables and in the whole life-cycle management,such as the identification of operation management,maintenance records and security tracing of HV equipments,are discussed. Finally, the application of RuBee in electric internet of things is prospected.
RuBee IEEE 1902.1 Market Report
Nov 2010 - Palo Wireless Market Research -- RuBee is a bidirectional protocol operating at low wavelengths designed to operate in harsh environments and high security applications. As a competitive technology to the more widely used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, RuBee, however, is not RFID. RuBee is an on demand peer-to-peer protocol that works like WiFi, except it uses magnetic waves not radio waves. RuBee tags have passed stringent security tests, and are in use within some of the most secure sites in the USA where other wireless technologies such as RFID, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are banned. RuBee is the only wireless technology that can dynamically manage range to prevent eavesdropping as well as the option to provide bit level data encryption.
Wireless System Monitors Weapons And Their Health
Jan 2012, National Defense, Business and Technology Magazine
Special Operations forces have begun using magnetic signals to keep track of their weapons. Visible Assets Inc. recently received a $5 million order from the Defense Department for its system to be used on the SCAR-H battle rifle. The company’s Allegro technology combines RuBee wireless identification tags, a shot counter and a custom chip that includes, among other things, an amplifier.