ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING AND COMMUNICATION

• US 20100100327A1
• Filed: 10/21/2008
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Copeland Cold Chain LP
• Original Assignee: PakSense Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Jensen, Thomas P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/2
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 9/007 Data loggers attached to transport containers for perishable products, e.g. food or medicines
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 1/022 for recording
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 1/024 for remote indication
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link

Abstract

One apparatus embodiment includes an electronic assembly, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition. The assembly includes a logic circuit coupled to: one or more environmental sensors, memory that provides data storage, and a wireless communicator. The logic circuit is configured to perform time measurement, perform environmental measurement with the one or more environmental sensors, store time-stamped environmental data in the memory, and communicate with particular other electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, via the wireless communicator. The logic circuit is also coupled to a power source that provides power to at least one of the logic circuit and the wireless communicator.

Claims

1. An electronic assembly, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, comprising:

a logic circuit coupled to;

one or more environmental sensors, memory that provides data storage, and a wireless communicator, wherein the logic circuit is configured to;

perform time measurement;

perform environmental measurement with the one or more environmental sensors;

store time-stamped environmental data in the memory; and

communicate with particular other electronic assemblies equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition via the wireless communicator; and

a power source that provides power to at least one of the logic circuit and the wireless communicator.

2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the logic circuit is configured to communicate the time-stamped environmental data with the particular other electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, and to a remote reader device via the wireless communicator.

3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein the logic circuit is configured to enter a sleep mode after communicating the time-stamped environmental data to the remote reader device.

4. The assembly of claim 3, wherein the sleep mode includes:

the logic circuit ceases to communicate via the wireless communicator; and

the logic circuit operates at a reduced power setting.

5. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the logic circuit is configured to initiate an alarm status when a calculated alarm event occurs based upon the measured time and measured environmental data or received environmental data.

6. The assembly of claim 5, wherein the logic circuit is configured to communicate the alarm status to a remote reader device via the wireless communicator.

7. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the logic circuit is configured to:

transmit an assembly identifier for the electronic assembly, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, via the wireless communicator; and

automatically acquire assembly identifiers of the particular other electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition.

8. The assembly of claim 7, wherein the logic circuit is configured to:

receive time-stamped environmental data along with a different assembly identifier from each of the particular other electronic assemblies via the wireless communicator;

append an assembly group identifier to the different assembly identifiers; and

store the received time-stamped environmental data in the memory along with the appended different assembly identifiers.

9. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes a port for physical contact and electrical communication with a remote reader device, and wherein the port is coupled to the power source to provide power from the remote reader device to the power source.

10. The assembly of claim 9, wherein the port is coupled to the logic circuit and configured to provide communication of time stamped environmental data from the memory to the remote reader device.

11. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the one or more environmental sensors includes one or more sensor functions selected from the group including:

a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a sensor that detects physical orientation, a proximity sensor, an acceleration sensor, a sensor of atmospheric pressure, a sensor of molecular compounds, a sensor for detecting a chemical change, a shock sensor, a vibration sensor, a light sensor, and combinations thereof.

12. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the particular other electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, are other electronic assemblies within communication range of the wireless communicator for a particular time.

13. The assembly of claim 12, wherein the wireless communication range is greater than 1000 feet, and wherein the wireless communicator is a radio frequency (RF) transceiver.

14. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes a protective cover at least partially surrounding the one or more environmental sensors, the memory, the wireless communicator, the logic circuit, and the power source.

15. The assembly of claim 14, wherein an adhesive graphic label is fitted over the protective cover.

16. The assembly of claim 15, wherein the assembly, including the protective cover and graphic label, is scaled in a package fabricated from a material that meets a food safety standard for contact with food, to form a water and dust resistant pouch.

17. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the pouch has overall dimensions less than or equal to 8.0 centimeters by 5.5 centimeters by 0.2 centimeters.

18. The assembly of claim 1, wherein:

the memory is a non-volatile memory;

the wireless communicator is coupled to an antenna;

the assembly includes one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) that, when illuminated, are visible from an exterior of the assembly; and

the assembly includes a pushbutton momentary switch configured to activate the assembly.

19. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the particular other electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, include:

a logic circuit coupled to;

one or more environmental sensors, memory that provides data storage, and a wireless communicator, wherein the logic circuit is configured to;

perform time measurement;

perform environmental measurement with the one or more environmental sensors;

store time-stamped environmental data in the memory; and

communicate with the particular other electronic assemblies for environmental sensing and communication via the wireless communicator; and

a power source that provides power to at least one of the logic circuit and the wireless communicator.

20. An environmental sensing and communication system, comprising:

a number of electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, each electronic assembly including a logic circuit coupled to one or more environmental sensors and a wireless communicator, wherein the logic circuit is encoded with an assembly identifier and configured to;

measure time;

measure at least one environmental condition change with the one or more environmental sensors;

record environmental data generated by the one or more environmental sensors;

periodically transmit time-stamped environmental data via the wireless communicator along with the assembly identifier; and

determine a group to include those electronic assemblies, equipped to sense one or more changes in an environmental condition, from which transmissions are received for a period of time; and

a reader device, wherein the reader device is configured to wirelessly download data from the group of electronic assemblies.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the period of time is greater than two hours.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein:

each electronic assembly includes memory; and

the logic circuit is configured to store time-stamped environmental data in the memory.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein one of the electronic assemblies in the group is assigned as a leader for the group.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the logic circuit is configured to store, when assigned as the leader, the time-stamped environmental data and the assembly identifiers received from each electronic assembly of the group in the memory.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the logic circuit is configured to append a group identifier to the assembly identifiers received from each electronic assembly.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein:

the reader device includes a microcontroller having instructions stored in memory and executable to transmit a download request signal; and

the logic circuit is configured to transmit, when assigned as the leader, the time-stamped environmental data along with the appended assembly identifiers from the memory to the reader device via the wireless communicator upon receipt of the download request signal.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein:

the reader device includes memory; and

the instructions are executable to store the time-stamped environmental data along with the appended assembly identifiers in the memory.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein:

the system includes more than one group;

each group is located within a different shipping container within communication range of the reader device; and

the instructions are executable to segregate the time-stamped environmental data for each group according to the appended assembly identifiers.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the reader device includes:

a wireless communicator to download data from the group of electronic assemblies; and

a physical communication port including a driver to transmit data.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the system includes a computing device located remotely to the number of electronic assemblies and to the reader device;

and

wherein the computing device includes;

a physical communication port, corresponding to the physical communication port of the reader device, including a driver to download data from the reader device; and

a processor, memory, and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to analyze the data from the reader device.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the wireless communicator of the reader device and the wireless communicator of each environmental sensing assembly are configured to provide a seamless link layer protocol of communication.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the reader device and the logic circuit include communication algorithms to operate the wireless communicator using forward error correction, re-transmission capability, and one selected from the group including:

channel hopping based on clear channel assessment and spread spectrum transmission.

33. The system of claim 20, wherein the group is located within one shipment container including environmentally sensitive products and the reader device can download data from the group while the shipment container remains scaled.

34. A method of environmental sensing and communication, comprising:

including a group of environmental sensing assemblies in an environment for sensing;

activating the group;

collecting environmental data with the group;

wirelessly communicating information between the environmental sensing assemblies of the group;

assigning one of the environmental sensing assemblies of the group as a leader for the group; and

storing the environmental data, collected by each environmental sensing assembly of the group, in memory of the leader.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein communicating information between the assemblies of the group includes:

communicating environmental sensing assembly identifiers; and

communicating environmental data collected by each environmental sensing assembly.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein storing the environmental data in memory of the leader includes storing the environmental data along with a corresponding environmental sensing assembly identifier for each environmental sensing assembly of the group.

37. The method of claim 36, including appending a group identifier to the assembly identifiers for the group.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein assigning the leader includes assigning the leader by a means selected from the group including:

randomly assigning one of the environmental sensing assemblies as the leader;

assigning one of the environmental sensing assemblies as the leader based on which assembly identifier meets one or more particular criteria with respect to other assembly identifiers;

assigning one of the environmental sensing assemblies as the leader based on which environmental sensing assembly has been active for the greatest amount time; and

assigning one of the environmental sensing assemblies as the leader based on which environmental sensing assembly has been active for the least amount of time.

39. The method of claim 34, including wirelessly communicating the environmental data from the leader to a reader device.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the method includes:

including the group in a sealed environment for sensing; and

wirelessly communicating the environmental data from the leader to the reader device while preserving the sealed environment.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein wirelessly communicating includes using one communication type selected from the group of communication types including:

frequency-hopping spread spectrum; and

direct-sequence spread spectrum radio transmissions.