Get started with ArcGIS IPS

Available for an ArcGIS organization licensed with the ArcGIS IPS extension.

ArcGIS IPS is an indoor positioning system that provides geolocation capabilities for a wide range of indoor location applications. ArcGIS IPS allows you to locate yourself and others inside a building in real time on an indoor map. It also allows you to navigate to people, places, and assets inside a facility in real time. With the integration of the indoor positioning system into ArcGIS platform, users can improve their operational efficiency by making better-informed decisions.

To enable indoor positioning, you must do one of the following:

Required software

One of the following is required to use ArcGIS IPS:

  • ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9.1 or later for a portal connection
  • ArcGIS Enterprise 11.2 on Kubernetes
  • An ArcGIS Online organization

License ArcGIS IPS

To use the tools in the Indoor Positioning toolbox and conduct surveys using the ArcGIS IPS Setup app, your organization must be licensed with the ArcGIS IPS organizational capability. In addition, organization members must also be assigned an ArcGIS IPS user type extension.

To assign a user the ArcGIS IPS user type extension and other required permissions, complete the following steps:

  1. Add the ArcGIS IPS organizational capability to your ArcGIS Online organization or Enterprise portal.
  2. For users that only need access to the IPS Setup app, refer to the configuration instructions for your type of organization:
  3. Assign users who need access to Indoor Positioning tools, the ArcGIS IPS user type extension and a member role with creation and editing capabilities.

Access Indoor Positioning tools

Licensed users must complete the following steps to license the Indoor Positioning tools for use in ArcGIS Pro:

  1. Start ArcGIS Pro.
  2. Add a connection to an ArcGIS organization that has the ArcGIS IPS organization capability.
  3. Sign in as a user assigned an ArcGIS IPS user type extension.
  4. Connect to your active portal.

Create the ArcGIS IPS Information Model

Use the Create IPS Data Model tool to create the ArcGIS IPS Data Model in an existing workspace. The model contains the table and feature classes required for surveying facilities and generating Indoor Positioning Datasets to be shared as Indoor Positioning Data Services for use in IPS-enabled applications.

Use the Create IPS Quality Dataset tool to create an ArcGIS IPS quality dataset that contains the feature classes necessary to store quality assessment results.

Learn more about creating the ArcGIS IPS data model and creating an ArcGIS IPS quality dataset

Create floor plan data

To accurately display your location indoors, you must use floor plan data that conforms to the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model.

Learn more about creating floor plan data

Create transitions for entrances and exits

Transitions in ArcGIS IPS differ from transitions in ArcGIS Indoors and are used to define facility entrances and exits. This information is used by ArcGIS IPS to shift seamlessly between Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for outdoor positioning to ArcGIS IPS for indoor positioning. To enable a seamless handover between GNSS and ArcGIS IPS, you must define features within an Indoors Transitions feature class and label them as entrances or exits.

Learn more about creating entrance and exit transitions

Create pathways for location snapping

Pathways represent a predefined routing network and are used by ArcGIS IPS to snap the location indicator to Pathways line features. To enable path-snapping, you must designate pathway features for use with ArcGIS IPS.

Learn more about creating pathway features for location snapping

Create survey paths

Survey paths are linear features that represent the predefined paths where you plan to record a survey using the IPS Setup app. The preplanned survey paths are stored as IPS Recordings features without a recording attachment.

To increase productivity and efficiency, you can create survey paths in ArcGIS Pro, the IPS Setup app, the ArcGIS Field Maps app, or in Map Viewer in your ArcGIS Online organization before going on-site.

Create wall features

Wall features are floor-aware polygon feature classes or feature layers that represent the physical extent of the walls in a facility where indoor positioning is being deployed.

You can derive wall features from levels and units, floor plan sketches, or BIM data of your facility. Once the wall features are derived, you can use them as input to generate an Indoor Positioning Data Service without performing surveys using the survey-less method of the Generate Indoor Positioning Dataset tool.

Create beacon features

The IPS_Beacons feature class is part of the ArcGIS IPS Data Model and allows you to do the following:

  • Plan optimal distribution of beacons within a facility for an IPS deployment.
  • Identify the location of deployed Bluetooth beacons.
  • Generate an Indoor Positioning Dataset without performing surveys.
  • Inspect and monitor the status and configuration of beacons.
  • Use the feature class as input for further inspection and maintenance of an IPS deployment.

Note:

You must first create beacon features using ArcGIS Pro editing capabilities, or in the Field Maps app, or in Map Viewer in your ArcGIS Online organization before you can use the Beacons feature class to perform these workflows.

ArcGIS IPS Setup app

Once you create the ArcGIS IPS Information Model, you can prepare and share a web map for use in the IPS Setup app. The app allows you to plan and perform surveys to collect the environmental data required to enable indoor positioning. The survey data is stored as recording features that can be uploaded from IPS Setup to the web map shared to your ArcGIS organization.

You can use collected survey data to generate an Indoor Positioning Dataset or generate a survey-less Indoor Positioning Dataset.

The Indoor Positioning Data Service generated using either of these methods can be tested for accuracy using the IPS Setup app. The IPS Setup app can also be used to collect quality recordings for assessing the performance of an ArcGIS IPS deployment.

Applications with ArcGIS IPS support

The following applications support ArcGIS IPS: