Canadian industrial positioning company ZeroKey is betting that millimetre-level real-time location tracking and AI-driven workflow analysis will become essential infrastructure for modern manufacturing plants, as manufacturers push to reduce costly assembly errors and improve factory efficiency.
Speaking to Automation News at Hannover Messe, Kyle Skelly, Chief Technology Officer, outlined the company’s ambitions to expand its real-time location system (RTLS) technology beyond automotive and aerospace factories into logistics, warehousing, and outdoor industrial environments.
The company’s system uses a combination of ultrasonics and radio timing signals to track tools, workers, vehicles, and assets in three-dimensional space with what it claims is millimetre-level accuracy.
“We can attach to tools, to personnel, to assets all throughout the space,” said Skelly. “That enables manufacturing processes, asset management, safety use cases, and a lot more.”
At the centre of ZeroKey’s Hannover demonstration was a manufacturing workflow combining worker tracking, autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) coordination, and smart tool integration.
In the demonstration, a worker equipped with wrist-mounted trackers completed a pick-and-place process to fulfil an order. The system then triggered AGV movements to transport components through the factory environment before integrating with torque tools designed to enforce bolt sequencing procedures.
The company argues that preventing assembly errors before they occur is becoming increasingly important in industries where mistakes can lead to expensive recalls or safety failures.
“With integration with smart tools, if a worker goes to the wrong bolt, we’re not even going to allow them to make that mistake in the first place,” said Skelly.
Bolt sequencing remains a major concern across automotive, aerospace, and electronics manufacturing, where missing or incorrectly torqued fasteners can create safety risks and trigger costly rework.
ZeroKey says its technology enables manufacturers to monitor not only whether an error occurred, but precisely where and when it happened within the workflow.
“Typically people only see very general information about whether something’s reporting an error,” Skelly said. “With us digitising positioning in 3D space, we’re able to indicate exactly where the error happened, what the error was, and come up with preventative ways to stop it happening again.”
Watch the full interview below:
