Ai-Thinker BU01 UWB Indoor Positioning Module (DW1000)

The Ai-Thinker BU01 is an ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver module built around the Decawave DW1000, with the antenna, RF circuitry, power management and clock already on the board. It measures the distance between modules by two-way ranging or TDOA to roughly 10 cm, which makes it a building block for indoor positioning of drones and ground robots where GPS is not available.

Key features

• On-board PCB antenna and RF front end, so no RF layout work is needed on your own board.

• Supports two-way ranging and TDOA, with positioning accuracy of about 10 cm.

• Data rates of 110 kbps, 850 kbps and 6.8 Mbps; compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB standard.

• Programmable transmit power and a sleep current under 1 mA for battery-powered tags.

• SPI interface to a host microcontroller from a single 2.8–3.6 V supply.

Specifications

• Chipset: Decawave DW1000

• Standard: IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB

• Frequency band: 3.5–6.5 GHz

• Data rate: 110 kbps / 850 kbps / 6.8 Mbps

• Ranging modes: Two-way ranging, TDOA

• Positioning accuracy: About 10 cm

• Interface: SPI

• Supply voltage: 2.8–3.6 V (3.3 V typical), supply rated above 200 mA

• Sleep current: Under 1 mA

• Antenna: On-board PCB antenna

• Package: 24-pin surface-mount module

• Dimensions: 23 × 13 × 2.9 mm

One module is not a positioning system. A working setup needs fixed anchors (three for a 2D fix, four for 3D) plus a tag on each drone or robot, with every BU01 driven over SPI by its own microcontroller running UWB ranging firmware; position is then computed from the measured distances. The module carries no processor or firmware of its own, so plan for the host MCU, the ranging code and a clean 3.3 V supply when you size the order.