METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY COMMISSIONING OF DEVICES OF A NETWORKED CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20140088772A1
• Filed: 06/05/2012
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Lelkens, Armand Michel Marie
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/286
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities 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 H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/1965 using handheld communication devices
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/199 Commissioning of light sources

Abstract

The invention relates to automatically commissioning of devices of a networked control system, particularly to automatically commissioning of wireless switches in lighting control systems. A basic idea of the invention is to derive from an installation constraints with regard to a networked control system and to consider these constraints during an automatic commissioning process based on signal strength processing. This may help to improve the reliability of commissioning based on signal strengths. An embodiment of the invention relates to a method for automatically commissioning of devices of a networked control system, which comprises one or more first devices (S1-S3) and several second devices (RC1-RC3) being able to communicate wirelessly, wherein wireless signals from first devices (S1-S3) are received by one or more second devices (RC1-RC3) and for each received wireless signal the signal strength is determined, and wherein the commissioning comprises the following steps: processing the determined signal strengths considering constraints derived from an installation of the networked control system for commissioning, and assigning the first devices (S1-S3) to one or more of the second devices (RC1-RC3) depending on the processing result.

Claims

1. A method for automatically commissioning of devices of a networked control system, which comprises one or more first devices (S1-S3) and one or more second devices (RC1-RC3) being able to communicate wirelessly, wherein wireless signals from first devices (S1-S3) are received by one or more second devices (RC1-RC3) and for each received wireless signal the signal strength is determined, and wherein the commissioning comprises the following steps:

processing the determined signal strengths considering constraints derived from an installation of the networked control system for commissioning, and

assigning the first devices (S1-S3) to one or more of the second devices (RC1-RC3) depending on the processing result, wherein the step of processing further comprises weighting the signal strength of each received wireless signal depending on the installation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the installation of the networked control system comprises one or more rooms (R1-R3) and constraints derived from the installation plan are one or more of the following:

number of first devices in each room;

number of second devices in each room;

number of rooms to which a first device is assigned.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of processing comprises the following steps:

determining the total signal strength for several different possible assignments of first devices and second devices, which fulfill the constraints derived from the installation of the networked control system, and

selecting the assignment of first devices and second devices with the largest total signal strength among the determined total signal strengths.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of determining the total signal strength comprises a brute force method over all possible permutations of allocations of first devices and second devices or a heuristic method.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the values for weighting the signal strengths are estimated based on actual measurements of the signal strengths of wireless signals.

7. A computer program enabling a processor to carry out a method according to claim 1.

8. A record carrier storing a computer program according to claim 7.

9. A computer programmed to perform a method according to claim 1.

5. (canceled)

10. A commissioning tool (SC) for a networked control system comprising

a communications module for communicating with devices (RC1-RC3) of the networked control system and to receive from one or more second devices (RC1-RC3) signal strengths of wireless signals from first devices (S1-S3) received and determined by the one or more second devices, and

a processor being configured to perform a method for commissioning in order to assign the first devices (S1-S3) to one or more of the second devices (RC1-RC3), by performing the steps of:

processing the determined signal strengths considering constraints derived from an installation of the networked control system for commissioning, and

assigning the first devices (S1-S13) to one or more of the second devices (RC1-RC3) depending on the processing result, wherein the processing further comprises weighting the signal strength of each received wireless signal depending on the installation.

11. A networked lighting control system comprising

one or more first devices (S1-S3),

one or more second devices (RC1-RC3) being adapted for receiving wireless signals from first devices (S1-S3) and for determining for each received wireless signal the signal strength, and

a system controller (SC) being adapted for

receiving the determined signal strengths,

processing the determined signal strengths considering constraints derived from an installation of the networked control system for commissioning, wherein the processing comprises weighting the signal strength of each received wireless signal depending on the installation, and

assigning the first devices (S1-S3) to one or more of the second devices (RC1-RC3) depending on the processing result.

12. The lighting control system of claim 11, wherein

the one or more first devices (S1-S3) are wireless switches and/or computers being adapted for wirelessly communicating with second devices,

the several second devices are wireless room controller (RC1-RC3) and/or wireless luminaries (L1-L18).

13. The lighting control system of claim 11, wherein the first devices and the second devices are wireless luminaries (L1-L18).

14. The lighting control system of claim 11, wherein the system controller (SC) is integrated in a second device.

15. (canceled)