System and method for remotely controlling behavior of multiple devices

• US 10,007,241 B1
• Filed: 04/28/2015
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Suterra LLC
• Original Assignee: Suterra LLC
• Inventors: Hedin, Andrew, Bonniwell, Joseph, Hamman, Matt
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Kenneth M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huntley, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US14/697,885
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 1/02 with devices or substances, e.g. food, pheronones attracting the insects
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 29/12 using odoriferous substances, e.g. aromas, pheromones or chemical agents
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/00 Arrangements for controlling delivery; Arrangements for controlling the spray area
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/02 for controlling time, or sequence, of delivery
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 83/262 by clockwork, motor, electric or magnetic means operating without repeated human input
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system and method for remotely controlling behavior of multiple devices are presented. The system comprises a plurality of devices, e.g. puffers, and a remote master controller. Each device includes a radio frequency (RF) control system for programming and control of its operation. The communication between the puffer and the master controller during mass programming is through Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral mode and observer mode. Using its peripheral mode, the master controller advertises a desired program for the puffers in an orchard through a custom UUID. Each puffer picks up and parses the custom UUID and reprograms itself. Each puffer also uses its peripheral mode to advertise its configuration to be picked up by the master controller so that the master controller can verify that the puffer has correctly reprogrammed itself based on the mass programming advertisement.

Claims

1. A system for remotely controlling behavior of multiple devices comprising:

a plurality of programmable dispensers each configured to periodically dispense a chemical, wherein each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers includes a first radio frequency communication system having a first radio and a first microcontroller coupled to the first radio, wherein the first radio frequency communication system includes a dispenser listening mode and a dispenser advertisement mode, wherein during the dispenser advertisement mode the first radio is configured to periodically advertise a custom dispenser universally unique identifier (UUID) that includes a dispenser program schedule; and

a remote master controller, wherein said master controller includes a second radio frequency communication system having a second radio, wherein the second radio frequency communication system includes a master controller listening mode and a master controller advertisement mode, wherein during the master controller advertisement mode the second radio is configured to periodically broadcast a master controller UUID that includes a desired program schedule for each of said plurality of programmable dispensers, wherein said master controller listening mode is configured to receive said periodic advertisements of said programmable dispensers and thereby determine a configuration and operational status of each of said plurality of programmable dispensers,

wherein each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers is configured to receive said master controller UUID broadcast through the dispenser listening mode, and is configured to update the dispenser program schedule to match the desired program schedule.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first radio frequency communication system and said second radio frequency communication system each utilize a BLUETOOTH®

Low Energy (BLE) communication protocol.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said master controller is configured to parse said dispenser UUIDs to determine if each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers has been properly programmed to the desired program schedule.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said master controller includes a user interface for setting parameters of said desired program schedule.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said parameters of said desired program schedule include at least one of puffing cycle start date, puffing cycle start time, puffing cycle end time, puff interval, or temperature threshold.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers is configured to search for a peripheral with a special name that is advertising a UUID.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the peripheral corresponds to said master controller, and wherein each one of the plurality of programmable dispensers is configured to take the UUID that is advertised by the master controller and interpret the UUID as the desired program.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the dispenser program schedule is configured to control dispensing of pheromones by said each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said master controller is a smart device.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the master controller is configured to populate a map interface with dispenser locations on the map interface, wherein the map interface includes a first symbol to indicate dispensers that have been properly programmed with the desired program schedule and a second symbol to indicate dispensers that are not properly programmed with the desired program schedule.

10. A method for remotely controlling behavior of multiple devices comprising:

broadcasting a special peripheral name followed by a master controller UUID with a first radio and a BLUETOOTH®

Low Energy (BLE) advertisement mode of a remote master controller, wherein said master controller UUID includes a desired program schedule for a plurality of programmable dispensers that are configured to periodically dispense a chemical;

listening for and receiving said master controller UUID at each of the programmable dispensers using a second radio and a BLE listening mode at each of the programmable dispensers;

parsing said master controller UUID at each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers and using information contained therein to update a dispenser program schedule at each one of the programmable dispensers;

creating a dispenser UUID at each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers that includes the updated dispenser program schedule;

broadcasting said dispenser UUID with the radio of the programmable dispenser using a BLE advertisement mode at each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers; and

listening for said advertisement of said dispenser UUID from each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers at the master controller to determine if the dispenser program schedule reflects said desired program schedule.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said master controller includes a user interface for setting parameters of said desired program schedule.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said parameters of said desired program schedule include at least one of puffing cycle start date, puffing cycle start time, puffing cycle end time, puff interval, temperature threshold, or combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein said dispenser program schedule is configured to control dispensing of pheromones by said each one of said plurality of programmable dispensers.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said master controller is a smart device.

22. The method of claim 10, further comprising populating a map interface with the master controller, wherein the map interface includes dispenser locations, a first symbol to indicate dispensers that have been properly programmed with the desired program schedule, and a second symbol to indicate dispensers that are not properly programmed with the desired program schedule.

15. A system for remotely controlling behavior of multiple devices comprising:

a master controller including a first BLUETOOTH®

Low Energy (BLE) capable device with a first observer mode and a first advertisement mode for communication,

wherein the master controller advertisement mode is configured to broadcast a custom universally unique identifier (UUID) that includes a desired program schedule for a plurality of programmable devices; and

a plurality of programmable devices, wherein each one of said plurality of programmable devices includes a second BLE capable device with a second observer mode and a second advertisement mode for communication,

wherein each one of said programmable devices is configured to receive said custom UUID from said master controller via said programmable device observer mode, parse said custom UUID and reprogram a device program schedule,

wherein the programmable device advertisement mode is configured to broadcast a programmable device UUID that includes the device program schedule,

wherein said master controller is configured to receive said programmable device UUID from each one of said plurality of programmable devices via said master controller observer mode and to use information contained in the programmable device UUIDs to determine if each one of the programmable devices is using the desired program schedule.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said master controller includes a user interface for setting parameters of said desired program schedule.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of said plurality of programmable devices is a puffer and said parameters of said desired program schedule include at least one of puffing cycle start date, puffing cycle start time, puffing cycle end time, puff interval, temperature threshold, or combinations thereof.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said device program schedule is configured to control dispensing of pheromones by said each one of said plurality of programmable devices.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein each one of said plurality of programmable devices is configured to search for a peripheral with a special name that is advertising a UUID.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the peripheral is said master controller, and wherein each one of the plurality of programmable devices is configured to take the UUID that is advertised by the master controller and interpret the UUID as the desired program schedule.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the master controller is configured to populate a map interface with device locations on the map interface, wherein the map interface includes a first symbol to indicate devices that have been properly programmed with the desired program schedule and a second symbol to indicate devices that are not properly programmed with the desired program schedule.