Redundant monitoring

• US 20090146806A1
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Copeland Cold Chain LP
• Original Assignee: PakSense Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Hatchett, James, Jensen, Thomas P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,760,084 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 18/00 Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/03 with multiple-channel loop, i.e. redundant control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0717 the sensor being capable of sensing environmental conditions such as temperature history or pressure
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0294 where the change is not permanent, e.g. labels only readable under a special light, temperature indicating labels and the like
• 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

Abstract

Methods, mediums, systems, and devices for redundant monitoring are disclosed. One method of providing redundancy in an environmental monitoring device includes combining a first sensor, one or more redundant sensors, and a plurality of control logic components; monitoring a selected environmental condition using the plurality of sensors; measuring the selected environmental condition using the plurality of sensors each reporting to a particular control logic component among the plurality of control logic components, each of the plurality of control logic components monitoring a sequence of such measurements; and correlating corresponding monitored measurements from the sequence of measurements of each of the plurality of control logic components and determining whether a difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements of each of the plurality of control logic components.

Claims

1. A method of providing redundancy in an environmental monitoring device, comprising:

combining a first sensor, one or more redundant sensors, and a plurality of control logic components;

monitoring a selected environmental condition using the plurality of sensors;

measuring the selected environmental condition using the plurality of sensors each reporting to a particular control logic component among the plurality of control logic components, each of the plurality of control logic components monitoring a sequence of such measurements; and

correlating corresponding monitored measurements from the sequence of measurements of each of the plurality of control logic components and determining whether a difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements of each of the plurality of control logic components.

2. The method of claim 1, where monitoring the selected environmental condition includes monitoring a number of environmental conditions selected from a group including temperature, humidity, physical impact, tilt, vibration, pressure, light, radioactivity, presence of biological organisms, and chemical agents.

3. The method of claim 2, where monitoring temperature includes measuring the temperature with a plurality of silicon-based sensors, where each of the plurality of control logic components associated therewith includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting signals into digital measurements.

4. The method of claim 1, where monitoring the selected environmental condition includes monitoring the selected environmental condition of a product during a number of time periods that include pre-transport storage, transport, and post-transport storage.

5. The method of claim 1, where determining whether the difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements includes determining whether the difference between the corresponding monitored measurements exceeds a predetermined threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, where determining whether the difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements includes determining from a sequence of recorded measurements whether the difference is resolved within a number of subsequent recorded measurements.

7. The method of claim 1, where the method includes combining the plurality of sensors and the plurality of control logic components into an enclosed circuit in a discrete enclosure, where the discrete enclosure is selected from a group including a tag, a label, and a package for an adjacent product.

8. The method of claim 7, where monitoring the selected environmental condition includes monitoring the measurement of an ambient level of the environmental condition in the vicinity of the adjacent product instead of a level on and in the adjacent product.

9. The method of claim 1, where the method includes operating to inform a user of circuit failure when a difference between the corresponding monitored measurements exceeds a predetermined threshold and operating to inform a user when a level of the selected environmental condition is outside a predetermined range.

10. A method of providing an environmental monitoring device, comprising:

combining one or more sensors and one or more control logic components into an enclosed circuit;

monitoring a selected environmental condition using the one or more sensors;

measuring the selected environmental condition using the one or more sensors each reporting to a different control logic component among the one or more control logic components, each of the one or more control logic components measuring a sequence of such measurements; and

correlating corresponding measurements from the sequence of measurements of each of one or more control logic components and determining whether a difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements of each of the plurality of control logic components.

11. A method of providing redundancy in an environmental monitoring device, comprising:

combining a plurality of redundant sensors and a control logic component;

monitoring a selected environmental condition using the plurality of redundant sensors;

measuring the selected environmental condition using the plurality of redundant sensors each reporting to the control logic component, where the control logic component separately monitors a sequence of such measurements from each of the plurality of redundant sensors; and

correlating with the control logic component corresponding measurements from the sequence of measurements of each of the plurality of redundant sensors and determining with the control logic component whether a difference exists between the corresponding monitored measurements of each of the plurality of redundant sensors.

12. A medium having control logic-executable instructions stored thereon to perform a method comprising:

recording a first digital set of measurement data for an environment by sending data to a first control logic component from a first number of sensors and recording a second set of digital measurement data for the environment by sending data to a second control logic component from a second number of sensors;

cross-comparing via a communication signal path by comparing the first digital set of measurement data with the second set of digital measurement data using the first control logic component and by comparing the second digital set of measurement data with the first set of digital measurement data using the second control logic component; and

recording a first indicator of at least one of the comparisons of the first and second digital sets of measurement data having a difference exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

13. The medium of claim 12, where the method includes recording a second indicator of measurement data for the environment being outside a predetermined range if the comparisons of the first and second digital sets of measurement data have a difference not exceeding the predetermined threshold value.

14. The medium of claim 12, where the method includes having a sensor in the second number of sensors that is redundant for a sensor in the first number of sensors.

15. The medium of claim 14, where the method includes combining the redundant sensors and the first and second control logic components into a single circuitry configuration in a discrete enclosure, where the discrete enclosure is selected from a group including a tag, a label, and a package.

16. The medium of claim 12, where the method includes assigning particular data values in the first digital set of measurement data to a number of particular time points and assigning particular data values in the second digital set of measurement data to substantially the same particular time points to enable correlating the particular data values in the first and second sets of digital measurements.

17. The medium of claim 16, where the method includes cross-comparing the particular data values in the first digital set of measurement data assigned to the number of particular time points with the particular data values in the second digital set of measurement data assigned to substantially the same particular time points.

18. The medium of claim 12, where recording the first indicator includes operating to inform a user of circuit failure, where the first indicator includes a number of indicators selected from a group including:

flashing a light;

sounding an alarm;

sending an electromagnetic frequency signal;

discontinuing recording of measurement data for the environment and recording a time for the circuit failure in a memory accessible to the user; and

erasing recorded measurement data for the environment from the memory.

19. The medium of claim 13, where recording the second indicator includes operating to inform a user of an environmental condition, where the second indicator includes a number of indicators selected from a group including:

flashing a light;

sounding an alarm;

sending an electromagnetic frequency signal; and

continuing recording of measurement data for the environment and recording a number of time periods for the environmental condition in a memory accessible to the user.

20. A redundant environmental monitoring system, comprising:

a first sensor connected to a first control logic component and a second sensor connected to a second control logic component;

individual output from the first control logic component and the second control logic component representing separate measurement values of an environmental condition sensed by the first and second sensors at substantially the same time point;

a failsafe logic component that receives input of the individual output from the first control logic component and the second control logic component, where the failsafe logic component outputs an alert if a difference between the separate measurement values sensed by the first and second sensors at substantially the same time point exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

21. The system of claim 20, where the system includes the first sensor also connected to the second control logic component and the second sensor also connected to the first control logic component, where each control logic component cross-compares the output from the first and second sensors.

22. The system of claim 21, where the first and second control logic components are connected to communicate the cross-comparison such that, if the cross-comparison indicates the difference exceeds the predetermined threshold value, both the first and second control logic components are enabled to generate the alert.

23. The system of claim 21, where the system includes a number of components selected from a group including:

a first single connection analog-to-digital (A/D) converter for converting analog output from the first sensor into digital input for the first control logic component and a second single connection A/D converter for converting analog output from the second sensor into digital input for the second control logic component;

a first dual connection AID converter for converting analog output from the first sensor into digital input for the first and second control logic components and a second dual connection A/D converter for converting analog output from the second sensor into digital input for the first and second control logic components;

a first incorporated A/D converter included in the control logic of the first control logic component for converting analog output from the first sensor and a second incorporated A/D converter included in the control logic of the second control logic component for converting analog output from the second sensor;

a single electrical power source to supply electrical power to the first and second control logic components, and components connected to the first and second control logic components; and

a first electrical power source to supply electrical power to the first control logic component, and components connected to the first control logic component, and a second electrical power source to supply electrical power to the second control logic component, and components connected to the second control logic component.

24. The system of claim 21, where the system includes an application-specific integrated circuit in which the components are included, where the components include a number of components selected from a group including:

redundant sensors for each of a number of environmental conditions;

the first control logic component and the second control logic component to receive separate measurement values from the redundant sensors for each of the number of environmental conditions;

a number of A/D converters to enable receipt of digital measurement values by the first and second control logic components from analog output by the redundant sensors for each of the number of environmental conditions;

program memory and data memory for each of the control logic components;

the first control logic component and the second control logic component to analyze and compare input of the separate measurement values from the redundant sensors for each of the number of environmental conditions; and

the failsafe logic component to receive input from the first and second control logic components to determine whether output of a failsafe alert is performed based upon analysis of such input.

25. The system of claim 24, where the application-specific integrated circuit is usable in a tag, a label, and a package to monitor a number of environmental conditions appropriate to quality control of an adjacent product.