Access to distributed databases via pointer stored in RFID tag

• US 20070075128A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Chand, Sujeet, Hall, Kenwood, Somogyi, Andreas, Owen, Joseph, Bapat, Vivek, Tinnell, Kenneth, Pietrzyk, Arthur, Morse, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,025,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/376
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in a data management scheme that combines both distributed as well as a hierarchical (object-oriented) data management structure. The hierarchical databases will store data records such that each or selected entities of the record will be associated with a pointer that can be written into an RFID tag of an item as the item progresses through manufacturing, production, transportation, and consumer user, for example. Thereafter, once the RFID tag is read, the pointer information can be processed to directly access the data in the database associated with the pointer.

Claims

1. A system that manages data, comprising:

a database component that facilitates hierarchical representation of RFID data records; and

a relationship component that relates RFID elements of the records using backward and forward pointers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the database component includes a hierarchical database that is distributed.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID elements include manufacturing and process information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the database component includes a hierarchical object oriented database that is distributed.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an RFID tag that includes a pointer to an element of a record such that other information can be accessed via the backward and forward pointers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database component includes a distributed database, disparate datastores of which can be accessed via the backward and forward pointers.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning and reasoning component that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the database component includes at least one of inventory data, a data table, an instruction set, and a product manifest.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a subset of the hierarchical representation is a database that is stored in part in at least one of a programmable logic controller (PLC), a workstation, and a computer.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID elements are related by at least one of an HTTP hyperlink, an alphanumeric designation, and a directory path.

11. A system that manages data, comprising:

a distributed database of enterprise information that includes a hierarchical representation of RFID data records of an item; and

an RFID tag of the item that stores item data and a pointer that relates to a data record of the item.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the pointer is updated as the item moves through different production processes.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the pointer is updated as the item moves through a transportation process to relate to item transportation data of the database.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the RFID tag includes multiple different pointers that each point to a different record of the RFID data records in the database.

15. A method of managing data in an RFID environment, comprising:

writing an address associated with a datastore entity to a pointer stored in an RFID tag associated with an item;

reading the pointer to extract the address therefrom;

locating the datastore based at least in part on the address; and

accessing the datastore to obtain data associated with the item.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of utilizing data associated with the item in an industrial process.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of adding data to the datastore associated with the item in response the act of reading the pointer.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the datastore is accessed by at least one of a PLC, an RFID reader or reader/writer, a warehouse management system, and a logistics network.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of writing a plurality of the pointers to the RFID tag.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of deleting select ones of a plurality of the pointers written to the RFID tag based in part on an area in which the item is processed.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of accessing any part of the distributed database by utilizing the pointer.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising an act of tracing any item of a plurality of assembled RFID tagged items using a single pointer of one of the RFID tags.

23. A system that facilitates data management of an RFID tagged item, comprising:

means for recording location of a data element in a datasource as a pointer in an RFID tag;

means for reading the RFID tag to determine the location of the data element;

means for accessing the datasource; and

means for obtaining the data element associated with the item from the datasource.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for writing data to the datasource via the pointer.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for writing a new pointer to the RFID tag.

26. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for writing an update to the pointer to the RFID tag.