AiRISTA Flow RTLS

The AiRISTA Flow RTLS integrated system provides location identification and tracking.

Definitions

RTLS — Real-Time Location System

Tag — A tag is a physical device that tracks the location for people or objects via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

RTLS Events — These are events triggered by the AiRISTA Flow RTLS system, e.g., a tag entering or exiting a zone.

Setup

See the Data Servers page for information on configuring driver communication.

Compatibility

The AiRISTA Flow RTLS integrated system is compatible with UVS software version 6.

Prerequisites


Software	Minimum Version
IPFusion — AiRISTA Flow RTLS	2.6
.NET Framework	4.7.2

When completing your setup, be sure to have the AiRISTA Flow documentation available for reference.

Ports

These ports must be open in your network firewall for the integration to work.


Purpose	Default Value	Configurable
Communication Settings	8550	Yes
Dataserver	9031	Yes
Debug Tools	9578	No

Communication Configuration

In the integrated system configuration panel, you will find the Communication Settings. The following information is required:

Table 1. General
Vision Connection	Select this option if you are connecting to an AiRISTA Flow Vision server.
UVS Connection	Select this option if you are connecting to an AiRISTA Flow UVS server.

Table 2. Connection Settings
Address	The IP Address or host name of the AiRISTA Flow RTLS server. If the UVS Connection option is selected, you can add multiple servers. The highest priority server will be connected to first. In the event connection to that server is lost, Runtime will failover to the next server in the priority list.
Port	This option is only available for AiRISTA Flow Vision connections. This is port used to connect to the AiRISTA Flow server.

Table 3. Authentication
Address	The IP Address or host name of the AiRISTA Flow RTLS server.
Username	The Username of the account to log in to the RTLS server with. This is typically a user created specifically for the AiRISTA Flow to Runtime connection.
Password	The Password to log in with.

Table 4.
Connection retries before failover	This option is available for UVS connections only. This is the number of times the data server will attempt to connect to the AiRISTA Flow server before failing over to the next one in the list.
Connection retry delay (s)	The amount of time in seconds the data server will wait before trying to reconnect to the AiRISTA Flow server.
Resolve Tag Location using Zone Caption	This option is only available for Vision connections. Checking this box allows tags to resolve to zones based on the Caption property rather than the zone ID. The Caption must match the zone name in Vision (this is both case and white space sensitive). Note: When this option is enabled, zone assets must contain unique zone IDs. The configured ID does not have to be accurate to the system. Duplicate IDs can cause issues with location resolution. You can see how to quickly update all zone assets to have a unique ID here.

Note: Red X indicates an invalid or out of range value given for field.

Tag Group Assignment

The tags that represent a specified type are assigned a Status Table and a Command Table. This is defined and assigned within the Tag Type Assignment menu. Tag groups can be changed during Runtime. Its corresponding Status and Command Tables will be updated for the current group. If the group for a tag is set to one which has not been configured in the project, it will no longer receive status updates in Runtime.

Advanced

This area contains a checkbox for the Override Tag alarms to use Zone Caption option. Checking this will result in the tag Caption always being displayed for the tag Location and Logging Description columns in all Alarm Grids. If this option is unchecked, we will only use the Caption for the Location if the Logging Description does not exist, and the Logging Description column will not display the Caption at all. By default, this option is unchecked.

Assets

Tag Asset

Tag assets are not defined in Designer. Instead, the tag assets are defined in the RTLS system and are automatically imported into Runtime. Alarms on this asset will display the zone it is located within. If the tag has initialized but not entered a zone yet, the zone listed is Unknown Zone. This will be updated once the tag enters a zone. If the tag leaves that zone area but does not enter a new one, the last known zone for the tag will be displayed.

Note: When using AiRISTA Flow RTLS with Location Fusion, ensure the MAC addresses entered for import are well-formed, or else they will not work. An imported malformed MAC address must be deleted and recreated.

View all properties

Supported States


Normal	The asset is online and in its default state.
Masked	The asset has been masked over its true state.
Fault	An issue has been detected in a connected asset.
Acknowledged	An asset alarm has been acknowledged.
No Communication	Communication has been lost with the driver or asset. This status can also occur if the communication configuration for the system or asset is invalid. Note: This status is required in all status tables.
Button Press	This is a configurable state.
Button Press 2	This is a configurable state.
Button Press 3	This is a configurable state.
Inactive	This is a configurable state.
Low Battery	This is a configurable state.
Tamper	This is a configurable state.
Tamper 2	This is a configurable state.
Tamper 3	This is a configurable state.

Important: Tags will only report a button press or tamper status on the initial tag check-in. If the button press or tamper are not still actively occurring on the tag, it will no longer report that status to Runtime. For statuses which you need to remain visible (such as a tamper status used to indicate a staff duress), it is recommended to bind that status to a latched alarm. The status will then remain visible until the alarm is acknowledged and reset.

See the Configure a Status Table page for more information on configuring status tables.

Supported Commands


Mask	Mask the asset's true state.
Acknowledge	Acknowledge an asset alarm.
Reset	Resets the asset to its true hardware state.
Cancel	Deselects all selected assets.

See the Command Tables page for more information on configuring command tables.

Zone

A zone is an area on the RTLS system site map that can be used to identity the approximate location of tags on a Map. The zone assets behave uniquely for a few reasons:

Acts as a storage for a collection of tags that are defined by the AiRISTA Flow system. Each zone will only store the collection of tags that are currently in that specific zone.
Does not represent the status of the zone, but rather the status of the tags within the zone.
Does not have its own set of commands, but rather the commands of the tags in an alarm state within the zone.
If multiple tags are in an alarm state within a zone, the zone will display the tag with the highest priority followed by the oldest alarm that is unacknowledged.
A zone that has no tags in an alarm state is not available for selection.

Property Grid Fields

Table 5. Required
Zone ID	The identifier of the zone within the AiRISTA Flow RTLS system.
Devices	A collection of devices assigned to a zone, each having: MAC Address — The Media Access Control address of the device. Minimum RSSI — The minimum Received Signal Strength Indicator of the device (range from -100–0). Priority — The priority level assigned to the device (range 1–5).

Table 6. Optional
Area	The name of the area, building, or unit where the zone is located.
Floor	Name of the Floor the zone is on.

View all properties

Supported States


Normal	The asset is online and in its default state.
No Communication	Communication has been lost with the driver or asset. This status can also occur if the communication configuration for the system or asset is invalid. Note: This status is required in all status tables.

See the Configure a Status Table page for more information on configuring status tables.

System

The system asset is a representation of the connection state of the RTLS system.

View all properties

Supported States


Normal	The asset is online and in its default state.
Masked	The asset has been masked over its true state.
Fault	An issue has been detected in a connected asset.
Acknowledged	An asset alarm has been acknowledged.
No Communication	Communication has been lost with the driver or asset. This status can also occur if the communication configuration for the system or asset is invalid. Note: This status is required in all status tables.

See the Configure a Status Table page for more information on configuring status tables.

Supported Commands


Mask	Mask the asset's true state.
Acknowledge	Acknowledge an asset alarm.
Reset	Resets the asset to its true hardware state.
Cancel	Deselects all selected assets.

See the Command Tables page for more information on configuring command tables.

Hardware Sync

Zone assets can be populated automatically in Designer based on the hardware within a positioning model on the AiRISTA Flow server. This functionality is only available for Vision connections. Refer to the Hardware Sync section for further information.

Workflow Integration

Asset Events

Asset events are events used to trigger Workflow actions on an asset level. For more information about Workflows, see the Workflows section.

Tag Asset

Selected

The tag asset has been selected.

Table 7. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Deselected

The tag asset has been deselected.

Table 8. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Status Changed

The status of the tag has changed in Runtime.

Table 9. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Command Touched

A command button for a tag asset has been touched.

Table 10. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Command Executed

A command for a tag asset has been executed.

Table 11. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Alarm Postings Changed

Table 12. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

RTLS Tag Initialized

The tag has been initialized in Runtime.

Table 13. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Tamper 2 Received

A tamper 2 alarm has been received from the tag.

Table 14. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Button 1 Press

Button 1 has been pressed for a short period of time.

Table 15. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Button 1 has been pressed for a long period of time.

Table 16. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Button 2 Press

Button 2 has been pressed for a short period of time.

Table 17. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Button 2 Long Press

Button 2 has been pressed for a long period of time.

Table 18. Properties
Battery Level	The current charge percentage of the tags battery.
MAC Address	The tags MAC address.
UVS Tag Group	The group which this tag belongs to in the tag configuration.
UVS Tag ID	The tags ID in the AiRISTA Flow configuration.
UVS Tag Name	The name assigned to the tag in its configuration.
Zone Asset ID	The ID of the zone which the tag is located in.

Zone Asset

All zone asset events can access the Last Tag Entered, Last Tag Exited, Highest Priority Tag In Alarm and Newest Tag In Alarm. The Caption and Logging Description on the following tag properties use the Tag Name along with the Caption and Logging Description of the zone the tag is in.


Area	Where the event took place.
Containing Tag is in Alarm	Whether the tag is currently in an alarmed state.
Floor	The Floor the tag was on when the event took place.

On Tag Exited

This event occurs when a tag exits a zone.

Table 19. Properties
Tag ID	The unique identifier given to a tag by the AiRISTA Flow system.
MAC Address	The MAC Address (Media Access Control address) for the tag.
Tag Name	The user provided Name to a tag assigned in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Tag Group	The user provided Group assigned to the tag in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Battery Level	Remaining power on the device Battery.
Zone Asset ID	The unique identifier given to a Zone by the AiRISTA Flow system.

On Tag Entered

This event occurs when a tag enters a zone.

Table 20. Properties
Tag ID	The unique identifier given to a tag by the AiRISTA Flow system.
MAC Address	The MAC Address (Media Access Control address) for the tag.
Tag Name	The user provided Name to a tag assigned in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Tag Group	The user provided Group assigned to the tag in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Battery Level	Remaining power on the device Battery.
Zone Asset ID	The unique identifier given to a Zone by the AiRISTA Flow system.

On Tag Alarm

This event occurs when a tag is in an alarmed state.

Table 21. Properties
Tag ID	The unique identifier given to a tag by the AiRISTA Flow system.
MAC Address	The MAC Address (Media Access Control address) for the tag.
Tag Name	The user provided Name to a tag assigned in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Tag Group	The user provided Group assigned to the tag in the AiRISTA Flow System.
Battery Level	Remaining power on the device Battery.
Zone Asset ID	The unique identifier given to a Zone by the AiRISTA Flow system.

System Events

System events are events used to trigger Workflow actions on a system level. For more information about Workflows, see the Workflows section.

Rule Event Received

Important: This event is only available for Vision systems.

A rule configured within the Vision system has been activated. This occurs when the conditions in the rule have been met.

Tip: When configuring this trigger, keep in mind:

Modifying the rule in Vision will cause its Rule ID to change
A single rule can trigger multiple times on the same event, which will cause this trigger to fire multiple times

Table 22. Properties
Rule ID	The unique identifier for the rule in the Vision system. This can be used to differentiate between events if you wish to complete different actions based on the rule triggered.
Safety Switch State	The current state of the safety switch on the tag which activated the rule. E.g.; "ALARM" while pulled, blank if it is in the default position.
Tag Name	The name of the tag within the Vision system.
Tag Location Name	The zone name within the Vision system.
Tag Location ID	The ID of the zone within the Vision system which the tag that triggered this event was located in when the rule was activated.
Tag MAC	The MAC address of the tag which activated the rule.
Zone Asset ID	The asset ID of the zone which the tag that triggered this event was located in when the rule was activated.

System Commands

System commands are commands executed through Workflows at the system level. For more information about Workflows, see the Workflows section.

Send Message to Group

Table 23. Parameters
Group Name	The Name of the targeted Group.
Message	The Message to send to the tag.

Send Message to Tag


MAC Address	The MAC address of the targeted tag.
Message	The Message to send to the tag.

Send Message to Zone(s)


Zone ID(s)	The Asset IDs of the target Zone Assets.
Message	The Message to send to the targeted tags.

Send Message to Floor


Floor Name	The name of the floor containing the tags to send a message to.
Message	The Message to send to the targeted tags.

Send Message to Area


Area Name	The name of the area containing the tags to send a message to.
Message	The Message to send to the targeted tags.

Troubleshooting

Logs from the driver and Runtime can be viewed in the Debug Tools client. These messages contain information which can provide further context for issues during initialization, or while actively running. This can help diagnose problems.

Vision Tag Alarms are Not Resolving in Runtime

When a tag is not assigned to any groups, this will result in its status not being resolved to Runtime. To check the groups a tag is a part of:

On the AiRISTA Flow Vision Controller, navigate to the Tags page.
Find the tag which has alarms not resolving to Runtime, and click on the corresponding Tag link.
Go to Actions > User Data > Member of Groups.
If none if the checkboxes in this section are checked, or if the ones which are checked are not added to the system configuration in Designer, then you must either:
1. Add the tag to a group which is configured within Designer and Save. This does not require any further action from Designer or Runtime to push the change.
2. If the tag is in a group which is not in the Designer configuration, it can be added in the system configuration under General Settings > Tag Group Assignment. This change will not require further action in the Vision software.

Alarms not coming in Runtime for Second System Instance

This system does not currently support multiple instances. It is recommended to only use one instance for a project.

Connection Issues

Ensure Communication Settings and asset configuration is correct.
Ensure the system hardware is connected to the same network as Runtime.
Check if the Integrated System driver service is running.
Verify the Integrated System dataserver addresses are correct.
Ensure other software on the Workstation is not using the same port as the driver.

Selected Asset Navigation not Working Correctly

When you select an asset in the alarm grid or via a Workflow, it automatically navigates you to that assets map. In the event this does not occur properly, it is likely your asset is either a duplicate, or hidden.

To see if your asset is a duplicate, check if other assets of that type contain the same settings. If you find that it is a duplicate, it is recommended to:

Delete the extra asset.
Note: If there are any references to this asset in Workflows, those will be broken by deleting this.
If you wish to place this asset in multiple locations, right-click the remaining asset and select Copy.
In the location you wish to duplicate this asset, right-click and select Paste. This will duplicate only the icon, but not the asset itself.

If your asset is hidden, it will not be navigated to on selection. If you do wish to navigate to a specific map, you can create a Workflow which changes the active map in a Map Container to the one desired.

Tag Alarms Unexpectedly Become Unacknowledged or Disappear

When the assigned groups for a tag change which an alarm is active in Runtime, it is acknowledged and reset in the background.

If the tag is still part of a group that can resolve statuses in Runtime, this would result in any active alarms becoming unacknowledged. In this case, it would need to be acknowledged again. If the alarm has cleared within Vision, this would result in it being cleared as there is no longer an active alarm to annunciate.

If the tag is no longer a part of any groups configured for Runtime, this would result in its alarm disappearing from Runtime. If the tag still needs to be able to annunciate alarms to Runtime, it either needs to be added to one of the groups configured in Designer from the AiRISTA Flow server, or have one of its groups added to the system configuration in Designer.

Tags are Incorrectly Resolving to Multiple Zones

When using a Vision connection with the Resolve Tag Location using Zone Caption option enabled in the Communication Settings, the zone assets zone IDs must be unique. You can see how to update all of the IDs to be unique here.

Tag is not Displaying the Correct Command Table or is not Resolving to the Correct Status Table

When a tag is a member of multiple groups, Runtime will use the configuration for the first group it sees for the tag. To resolve a tag to a specific status/command table, its group configuration must be updated to reflect which status and command tables it should be matched to.

Vision Tag Alarms are Not Resolving in Runtime

When a tag is not assigned to any groups, this will result in its status not being resolved to Runtime. To check the groups a tag is a part of:

On the AiRISTA Flow Vision Controller, navigate to the Tags page.
Find the tag which has alarms not resolving to Runtime, and click on the corresponding Tag link.
Go to Actions > User Data > Member of Groups.
If none if the checkboxes in this section are checked, or if the ones which are checked are not added to the system configuration in Designer, then you must either:
1. Add the tag to a group which is configured within Designer and Save. This does not require any further action from Designer or Runtime to push the change.
2. If the tag is in a group which is not in the Designer configuration, it can be added in the system configuration under General Settings > Tag Group Assignment. This change will not require further action in the Vision software.