# BLE-Based Custom Devices for Indoor Positioning in Ambient Assisted Living Systems: Design and Prototyping

## TL;DR

This paper presents two custom BLE-based devices for indoor positioning in assisted living systems, showing improved signal stability and energy efficiency compared to commercial alternatives.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the design and prototyping of reconfigurable BLE devices with enhanced configurability and energy efficiency for ambient assisted living.

## Key findings

- The wearable wristband and configurable BLE beacon demonstrated stable operation and improved RSSI consistency.
- Extended autonomy of up to 4 months for beacons and 3 weeks for the wristband was achieved.
- The devices support real-time data exchange and integration into IoT systems via standardized interfaces.

## Abstract

What are the main findings?
Two custom devices were successfully designed and prototyped: a wearable wristband, and a configurable BLE beacon with adjustment of transmission parameters.The laboratory tests confirm stable operation of devices, showing improved RSSI consistency and extended autonomy under different configurations.

Two custom devices were successfully designed and prototyped: a wearable wristband, and a configurable BLE beacon with adjustment of transmission parameters.

The laboratory tests confirm stable operation of devices, showing improved RSSI consistency and extended autonomy under different configurations.

What is the implication of the main finding?
The development validates the feasibility of tailoring BLE-based devices to overcome the limitations of commercial alternatives, enabling greater control over energy efficiency and signal stability.These advances highlight the potential of the proposed hardware for further refinement and adaptation to real-world experimental setups.

The development validates the feasibility of tailoring BLE-based devices to overcome the limitations of commercial alternatives, enabling greater control over energy efficiency and signal stability.

These advances highlight the potential of the proposed hardware for further refinement and adaptation to real-world experimental setups.

This work presents the design and prototyping of two reconfigurable BLE-based devices developed to overcome the limitations of commercial platforms in terms of configurability, data transparency, and energy efficiency. The first is a wearable smart wristband integrating inertial and biometric sensors, while the second is a configurable beacon (ASIA Beacon) able to dynamically adjust key transmission parameters such as channel selection and power level. Both devices were engineered with energy-aware components, OTA update support, and flexible 3D-printed enclosures optimized for residential environments. The firmware, developed under Zephyr RTOS, exposes data through standardized interfaces (GATT, MQTT), facilitating their integration into IoT architectures and research-oriented testbeds. Initial experiments carried out in an anechoic chamber demonstrated improved RSSI stability, extended autonomy (up to 4 months for beacons and 3 weeks for the wristband), and reliable real-time data exchange. These results highlight the feasibility and potential of the proposed devices for future deployment in ambient assisted living environments, while the focus of this work remains on the hardware and software development process and its validation.