What's New in ArcGIS IPS (November 2023)

ArcGIS IPS is Esri’s indoor positioning system that brings the blue dot positioning experience to indoor maps. It allows users to instantly locate themselves and others inside a building in real time which helps improve indoor navigation, safety and security (e.g. reducing emergency response times), and workflow efficiencies (e.g. workforce location sharing and resource allocation).

This release of ArcGIS IPS for ArcGIS Pro 3.2 comes with a substantial enhancement to the indoor positioning system setup process. Until now, enabling ArcGIS IPS required the performance of an IPS survey of the indoor space to collect radio reference data (Bluetooth or WiFi).

With the introduction of a new geoprocessing tool (GP tool), this step can now be entirely bypassed. Consequently, our users can enjoy a significantly expedited and simplified, survey-less indoor positioning system setup.

Survey-less Indoor Positioning

Creating a building survey, or collecting radio data, used to be a required step in the ArcGIS IPS setup process. It involved multiple steps such as planning the survey in ArcGIS Pro or the ArcGIS IPS Setup mobile app, recording the survey by capturing data while walking along the planned paths inside the building, and uploading the recording to your ArcGIS organization.

With the new Generate Indoor Positioning File Without Survey GP tool in ArcGIS Pro, this step is no longer necessary. The positioning file can now be generated based on beacon and floor plan data by simulating Bluetooth signal propagation through the indoor environment.

The following video demonstrates what the survey-less IPS workflow looks like in ArcGIS Pro.

Other Improvements

In case you’re following the traditional ArcGIS IPS setup process that includes the survey step, we’ve got good news for you too. The Generate Indoor Positioning File GP tool that is used in this workflow was revised as well and now runs up to ten times faster than before. In addition, the validation workflows were enhanced to offer users more comprehensive warning and error messages, facilitating a quicker understanding and resolution of errors.

Check out the documentation for the detailed release notes and watch this webinar recording to learn more about the benefits of survey-less indoor positioning and how to implement it: