METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE TRACKING OF ARTICLES

• US 20080281618A1
• Filed: 05/01/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Secondo, Pierre, Pucci, Bernard, Mermet, Jean-Francois
• Granted Patent: US 8,319,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Detecting whether an article has been loaded or unloaded for example from a ship by tracking the movements of a transducer such as an RFID tag attached to the article in space, and comparing the tracked movements with a trajectory envelope characterizing the movements associated with a load or unload action, and in the case where the movements of the article are found to comply with the trajectory envelope, registering the article as present in the predetermined volume.

Claims

1. A method of determining whether an article is present in a predetermined volume at a particular time, comprising:

defining a trajectory envelope;

determining a position of a first transducer associated with the article, at each of a plurality of successive instants preceding the particular time;

determining whether each successive position thus determined lies within the trajectory envelope; and

in a case where all of the positions are determined to lie within the trajectory envelope, registering the article as present in the predetermined volume.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the position of the article is determined at each of the plurality of successive instants by measuring differences between respective transit times of signals between each of a plurality of physically separated points at known locations and the first transducer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the signals are transmitted from the article and received at the points.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the signals are transmitted from the points and received at the first transducer.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the points are at known positions relative the predetermined volume.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the article is a shipping container.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the volume is a cargo area of a vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the trajectory is non-ballistic.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the trajectory envelope is defined as a function of a geometry characterizing the environment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the trajectory envelope corresponds to movements consistent with a deliberate mechanical movement of the first transducer from a starting position to the predetermined volume.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the volume lies outside the trajectory envelope.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the position of a further transducer releasably associated with the article at each of a plurality of successive instants preceding and following the particular time;

determining whether each successive position thus determined preceding the particular time lies within the trajectory envelope, and whether each successive position thus determined following the particular time differs from corresponding positions for the article, and only preceding to the registering of the article as present in the predetermined volume in a case where each successive position thus determined preceding the particular time lies within the trajectory envelope, and each successive position thus determined following the particular time differs from corresponding positions for the article.

13. The method of claim 12, where the further transducer is associated with a crane element used to move the article.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

issuing a notification to the transducer when the article is registered as present in the predetermined volume

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

putting hardware associated with the transducer into a sleep mode in response to the notification.

16. A computer program stored on a computer readable medium, which when executed, determines whether an article is present in a predetermined volume at a particular time, comprising program code for:

defining a trajectory envelope;

determining a position of a first transducer associated with the article, at each of a plurality of successive instants preceding the particular time;

determining whether each successive position thus determined lies within the trajectory envelope; and

in a case where all of the positions are determined to lie within the trajectory envelope, registering the article as present in the predetermined volume

17. A system for determining whether an article is present in a predetermined volume at a particular time comprising:

a system for defining a trajectory envelope;

a system for determining a position of a first transducer associated with the article, at each of a plurality of successive instants preceding the particular time;

a system for determining whether each successive position thus determined lies within the trajectory envelope; and

a system for registering the article as present in the predetermined volume, in a case where all of the positions are determined to lie within the trajectory envelope.