Embedded systems building blocks

• US 20060095893A1
• Filed: 05/10/2005
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Regents of the University of California (University of California)
• Original Assignee: Regents of the University of California (University of California)
• Inventors: Vahid, Frank, Lysecky, Susan
• Granted Patent: US 7,555,658 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

Stand-alone modules or blocks for use in creating low-power sensor-based monitor/control systems. Each module performs a pre-defined function, and when included in a monitor/control network operates as a node on the network and automatically communicates with one or more connected nodes using a uni-directional packet-based protocol. One class of such predefined nodes communicates Boolean values, for example, with input sensor nodes detecting the presence or absence of environmental phenomena (e.g., motion, light, sound, water, button presses, etc.), intermediate nodes transforming those Boolean values using combinational or sequential logic, and output nodes converting the resulting Boolean values to environmental phenomena (e.g., beeping, light, electric relay activation, etc.) or to data for further processing by a computer. Another class of nodes communicates integer or number values.

Claims

1. A stand-alone module for use in a user-configurable monitor/control network, wherein said module performs a pre-defined function, the module comprising:

an interface component configured to perform a pre-defined function;

a processor component configured to interface with the interface component, to implement local computation, to maintain local state information and to implement a packet-based communication protocol for communication with other modules when the module is configured in a network of one or more other stand-alone modules; and

a power source component configured to supply power to the interface component and the processor component.

2. The module of claim 1, wherein the power source component includes one of a battery and a circuit configured to convert power from an external voltage source.

3. The module of claim 1, wherein the module further includes at least one of an input port for receiving communication packets from other modules and an output port for sending communication packets to other modules.

4. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes one of a sensor element that detects the presence or absence of an environmental event or a quantity of an environmental attribute, an output generator that generates a physical output, or a computational circuit input element that controls the processor to perform one of a logic computation, a state computation or an arithmetic computation on one or more input values.

5. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a sensor element that detects the presence or absence of an event and generates a boolean signal, wherein the processor component is configured to send a packet to another module including a Boolean value in response to receiving the Boolean signal.

6. The module of claim 5, wherein the sensor element is selected from the group consisting of a light sensor, a motion sensor, a magnetic contact switch, a sound sensor, a water sensor, a button and a keypad.

7. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a sensor element that detects an environmental condition and generates an integer signal, wherein the processor component is configured to send a packet to another module including an integer value in response to receiving the integer signal.

8. The module of claim 7, wherein the sensor element is selected from the group consisting of a temperature sensor and a distance sensor.

9. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes an output generator that generates a physical output in response to a control signal, wherein the processor component is configured to receive a packet from another module including a Boolean value and to generate the control signal based on the received Boolean value.

10. The module of claim 9, wherein the output generator is selected from the group consisting of an audible beeper, an LED, a light, an electric relay, and an electric lock.

11. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes an output generator that generates a physical output in response to a control signal, wherein the processor component is configured to receive a packet from another module including an integer value and to generate the control signal based on the received integer value.

12. The module of claim 11, wherein the output generator includes an integer display device.

13. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a user-configurable computation circuit input element that controls the processor component to perform one of a logic computation, a state computation or an arithmetic computation, wherein the processor component is configured to receive packets from one or more other modules, each packet including one of a Boolean value and an integer value.

14. The module of claim 13, wherein the computation circuit input element includes a logic computation circuit selected from the group consisting of a two input Boolean logic circuit with a DIP switch, and a three input Boolean logic circuit with a DIP switch.

15. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a computation circuit input element that controls the processor component to operate as one of a threshold circuit, a range circuit, a counter circuit or an arithmetic computation circuit.

16. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a computation circuit input element that controls the processor component to operate as one of a Boolean timer, an integer timer, a toggle, a prolonger, a pulse generator, a switch, an error detector or a turnstile logger.

17. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes one of a wireless transmitter, a wireless receiver, or a computation circuit input element that controls the processor component to operate as one of a splitter, an Internet controller, an Internet status monitor, a telephone controller or a telephone status monitor.

18. The module of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to control communication with other modules such that packets are sent intermittently so as to conserve operating power.

19. The module of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes one or more user-configurable inputs, the configuration of which controls the processor to generate an output according to the pre-defined function.

20. A system comprising two or more stand-alone modules according to claim 1, wherein said two or more modules communicate using said packet-based communication protocol.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein packets are transmitted intermittently between the two or more modules in such a manner that communication between the modules appears to be continuous.

22. The module of claim 1, wherein the packet-based communication protocol is a uni-directional protocol.

23. A user-configurable monitor/control system comprising at least two stand-alone modules, each module comprising:

an interface component configured to perform a pre-defined function;

a processor component configured to interface with the interface component, to implement local computation, to maintain local state information and to implement a packet-based communication protocol for communication with other modules when the module is configured in a network of one or more other stand-alone modules; and

a power source component configured to supply power to the interface component and the processor component;

wherein the interface component of a first one of the modules includes a sensor element that detects the presence or absence of an event or an environmental condition and that is configured to generate a signal indicative of the condition or event, and wherein the processor component of the first module, in response to receiving a signal from the interface component, sends a packet to a second one of said modules, said packet including one of a Boolean value and an integer value indicative of the detected event or environmental condition.

24-35. -35. (canceled)

36. A computer-implemented method of simulating the design of a user-configurable monitor/control network comprising two or more stand-alone network modules, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of icons on a portion of a display, each icon representing a functional module;

positioning a first icon in a workspace portion of the display in response to a user selection of the first icon, said first icon representing a sensor module that detects the presence or absence of an environmental event or that detects an environmental condition, the first icon having an output node;

positioning a second icon in the workspace portion in response to a user selection of the second icon, said second icon representing one of an output module, a communication module or a compute module, said second icon having an input node;

displaying a connection between the output node of the first module and the input node of the second module in response to a user selection to connect the first and second modules; and

simulating operation of the connected first and second functional modules in response to a user selection of the sensor module output.

37-40. -40. (canceled)

41. A computer-implemented method of reducing a number of nodes in a user-defined simulated monitor/control network comprising a plurality of nodes, each simulated node representing a physical block node, the method comprising:

receiving a user selection of a simulated monitor/control network comprising one or more input nodes, a plurality of compute nodes and one or more output nodes, wherein each compute node implements a pre-defined function on one or more input values; and

automatically determining two or more compute node partitions using a partitioning algorithm, each partition including one or more of said compute nodes, wherein at least one partition includes two or more compute nodes, and wherein each partition that includes two or more compute nodes represents a physical programmable block node that implements the functionality of the two or more compute nodes for that partition.

42-55. -55. (canceled)