Rotion introduces onsite smartphone tracking

Belgium-based Rotion, which uses AI to automate circular logistics, is launching Hirro, a tracking system for machines and attachments that needs no gateways, gates or manual scans on the yard.

Instead of fixed infrastructure, Hirro uses the smartphones site staff already carry. Small tags on machines and attachments are picked up by those phones as people go about their work. AI turns the sightings into an inventory that keeps itself up to date: which bucket sits in which zone of the yard, what has been idle for weeks, and what has not come back from site.

Rotion is launching the smartphone Hirro tracking system. (Image: Rotion).

“Most rental companies we talk to have looked at tracking before and stopped at the hardware bill,” said Maarten Tak, founder of Rotion and Hirro. “We wanted to see what happens if the yard needs nothing new at all. If tracking is a small first step instead of a big project, far more companies can start, and attachments get the same visibility as the machines they go on.”

Field testing 

In October 2026, Hirro ran a one-week field test in the yard of a Belgian rental and crane company. Machines and attachments were tagged and the phones of staff did all the reading with no gateways were installed.

The 200 tagged machines and attachments in the test were placed in one of four zones, for example a row or wash bay. A radar view on the phone guided the staff over the final metres to the equipment.  It found that the accuracy of the tracking outside was 1-3 meters, while inside it was 2-5 meters, and used about 3% to 5% of a typical phone battery per eight-hour shift. Linking a tag to an asset takes two quick scans.

As Rotion explained, Hirro reports positions the site team already uses as zones, rather than using coordinates, as a named zone gets someone to the right place faster.

Hirro is set to be rolled out at scale from the first quarter of 2027. Companies can start on one yard with tags only, and add gateways later where required, for example to automatically log when equipment passes the gate or wash bay.

The inventory connects to a company’s existing rental or ERP system, while users can ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude or Microsoft Copilot where a specific asset is or what assets are still out, without opening Hirro.