Distributed sensor calibration

• US 10,605,633 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2015
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aclima Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aclima Inc.
• Inventors: Masson, Nicholas Bantle
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskridge, Cory W
• Application Number:
  US14/878,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20170102251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 18/00 Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 18/008 with calibration coefficients stored in memory
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/14 Displaying of utility usage with respect to time, e.g. for monitoring evolution of usage or with respect to weather conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/004 Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0075 for multiple spatially distributed sensors, e.g. for environmental monitoring transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices are described for calibrating a sensor of a distributed sensor system. More specifically, the described features generally relate to calibrating one sensor of such a system using information from one or more other sensors of the system. A calibration model may be determined based at least in part on a difference in geospatial location of the sensors. Further, in the case of one or both sensors being mobile, the difference in geospatial location of the sensors may vary over time such that different calibration models may apply to different portions of the sensed data. Also, the relative quality of the data sensed by the sensors may be taken into account for calibration (e.g., directionality of the calibration).

Claims

1. A method for calibrating an environmental sensor of a distributed environmental sensor system by a calibration device, the method comprising;

collecting sensed data of a first environmental sensor and a second environmental sensor of the distributed environmental sensor system;

determining a difference in geospatial location between a location of the first environmental sensor and a location of the second environmental sensor;

determining a difference between a quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and a quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor;

determining a calibration model that is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location and the determined difference between the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor; and

calibrating the first environmental sensor using the determined calibration model and the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein calibrating the first environmental sensor comprises:

sending an instruction to adjust a computational parameter that converts a physical sensor measurement to environmental condition data, wherein the instruction is sent to any one or more of;

the first environmental sensor, an assembly that includes the first environmental sensor, or a device that receives data from the first environmental sensor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein calibrating the first environmental sensor comprises:

correlating the sensed data of the first environmental sensor with the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calibrating the first environmental sensor comprises:

performing a frequency-based decomposition of the sensed data of the first and second environmental sensors that is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the calibration model comprises:

selecting a portion of the decomposed data of the first environmental sensor and a portion of the decomposed data of the second environmental sensor, wherein the selection is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location.

6. The method of claim 5, herein calibrating the first environmental sensor comprises:

correlating the selected portions of the decomposed data of the first and second environmental sensors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the calibration model comprises:

determining a weight of the sensed data of the second environment sensor for the determined calibration model based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location or the determined difference between the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining to calibrate the first environmental sensor when the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor is lower than the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality of the sensed data of at least one of the first environmental sensor and the second environmental sensor is based at least in part on an amount of the sensed data provided by that environmental sensor, a data history of that environmental sensor, a periodicity of data provided by that environmental sensor assembly, a calibration history of that environmental sensor, or a predetermined characteristic of that environmental sensor, or a combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein calibrating the first environmental sensor comprises:

selecting a portion of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and a corresponding portion of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location over time.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a parameter that affects the sensed data of the first environmental sensor; and

adjusting the sensed data of the first environmental sensor based on an effect of the parameter, the adjustment being performed prior to performing the calibration.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calibrating the second environmental sensor using the determined calibration model and the sensed data of the first environmental sensor.

13. A device for calibrating an environmental sensor of a distributed environmental sensor system, the device comprising:

a processor and memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-readable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the device to;

collect sensed data of a first environmental sensor and a second environmental sensor of the distributed environmental sensor system

determine a difference in geospatial location between a location of the first environmental sensor and a location of the second environmental sensor;

determine a difference between a quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and a quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor;

determine a calibration model that is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location and the determined difference between the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor; and

calibrate the first environmental sensor using the determined calibration model and the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises computer-readable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the device to calibrate the first environmental sensor by:

sending an instruction to adjust a computational parameter that converts a physical sensor measurement to environmental condition data, wherein the instruction is sent to any one of;

the first environmental sensor, an assembly that includes the first environmental sensor, or a device that receives data from the first environmental sensor.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises computer-readable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the device to calibrate the first environmental sensor by:

correlating the sensed data of the first environmental sensor with the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the memory further comprises computer-readable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the device to calibrate the first environmental sensor by:

performing a frequency-based decomposition of the sensed data of the first and second environmental sensors that is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable code to determine the calibration model is configured to:

determine a weight of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor for the determined calibration model based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location or the determined difference between the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

18. The device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises computer-readable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the device to:

determine to calibrate the first environmental sensor when the quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor is lower than the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.

19. The device of claim 13, wherein the quality of the sensed data of at least one of the first environmental sensor and the second environmental sensor is based at least in part on an amount of the sensed data provided by that environmental sensor, a data history of that environmental sensor, a periodicity of data provided by that environmental sensor assembly, a calibration history of that environmental sensor, or a predetermined characteristic of that environmental sensor, or a combination thereof.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable code that, when executed, causes a device to:

collect sensed data of a first environmental sensor and a second environmental sensor of a distributed environmental sensor system;

determine a difference in geospatial location between a location of the first environmental sensor and a location of the second environmental sensor;

determine a difference between a quality of the sensed data of the first environmental sensor and a quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor;

determine a calibration model that is based at least in part on the determined difference in geospatial location and the determined difference between the quality of the sensed data of the environmental sensor and the quality of the sensed data of the second environmental sensor; and

calibrate the first environmental sensor using the determined calibration model and the sensed data of the second environmental sensor.