SYSTEMS, METHODS, DEVICES AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR REAL AND NEAR-REAL TIME SENSOR DATA CAPTURE AND ANALYSIS

• US 20150301521A1
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Masitek Instruments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Masitek Instruments Incorporated
• Inventors: BYRON, JEREMY, CLINCH, TRACY
• Granted Patent: US 10,545,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31455 Monitor process status
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32033 Send article design, needed material, packaging and shipping info to manufacturer
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an integrated sensor system for monitoring, capturing, processing and analyzing data for delicate and fragile articles in real or near-real time movement within production, packaging and distribution systems. The system comprises a sensor platform that contains multiple on-board sensors detecting numerous force, environmental and movement variables; a handheld data receiver application in communication with said sensor module for issuing commands and processing captured data; and a web server application that is configured to receive information from one or more handheld data receiver applications and perform operations.

Claims

1. An integrated sensor system for production, packaging and distribution systems, comprising:

at least one sensor platform having multiple on-board sensors configured to capture sensor data in real or near real-time to detect force, environmental and movement variables for delicate and fragile articles within production, packaging and distribution systems;

at least one handheld data receiver application in communication with the sensor platform for issuing commands and processing captured sensor data in real or near real-time for immediate reporting and feedback on the platform; and

a web server application that is configured to receive data from the handheld data receiver application and perform operations comprising sensor data review, sensor administration and configuration, handheld data receiver application administration and configuration, system administration and data reporting and analytics, the web server application connected to a backend processor for monitoring, capturing, processing and analyzing the sensor data in real or near-real time.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the force, environmental and movement variables comprise acceleration in three axis measured at three different vertical positions on the sensor unit, pressure applied to the top of the bottle, sidewall pressure, jarring or collisions of the bottle, temperature, rotation, ambient light, humidity, position and other values.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more sensor platforms provide wireless communication using an appropriate radio communications protocol such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee or other radio communications protocol and allow the handheld data receiver application to start data acquisition and receive real-time sensor data.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more sensor platforms have settings stored in configuration files that provide unique device identification, security, and operational attributes for authentication and communication with a handheld data receiver application wherein the authentication of account credentials allows said receiver to communicate with the sensor module to send one or more commands.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform is mounted and housed in a replica fragile and delicate article in the approximate configuration and weight of the article and capturing real or near-real time movement, force and environmental data in the manner that would be experienced by an actual article in the production, packaging and distribution systems.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform transmits data on the estimation of tracking and current location positioning of said sensor module.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein acceleration/vibration sensors are utilized at an appropriate sampling rate to capture the entire acceleration waveform to accurately measure the acceleration profile and from that determine accurate velocity changes.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein data is collected using a plurality of sensor configurations to record acceleration, impact which is closely associated with the acceleration values), internal and external pressures, internal and external temperature, rotation, ambient light, humidity and location data during the state of real time movement for a delicate and fragile article within a production, packaging and distribution activity.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform has a triaxial accelerometer, or a set of single-axis or dual-axis accelerometers configured in a triaxial configuration, having multiple on-board sensors detecting multiple force, environmental or movement variables such as acceleration in all 3 axis measured at three different vertical positions on the sensor module, pressure applied to the top of the bottle, sidewall pressure, jarring or collisions of the bottle (closely associated with the acceleration values), rotation, temperature, ambient light, humidity and other values.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein values collected via radio protocols such as Wifi (802.11), Zigbee, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy or other radio protocol, with each sensor'"'"'s significant raw data being transmitted and captured and processed by a handheld data receiver application.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform provides a sufficient sampling rate for the entirety of a contact force event occurrence to a delicate and fragile article such that the force event can be reproduced from recorded data after the fact with an accuracy sufficient to record all significant data points and perform derivative calculations on them to determine other product parameters experienced, which were not directly measured.

12. The system of claim 11 where the other product parameters comprise a set of microsecond-level acceleration values transformed to produce velocity values.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform sensor is securely mounted to provide accurate acceleration and force measurement data within an acceptable range of statistical volatility.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor module is capable of being calibrated to an acceptable statistical confidence level.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein it is necessary for the sensor module to capture the number of impacts or other force, environmental and movement events correctly which has bearing on fragile item failure due to repeated stresses.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more handheld data receiver applications authenticates and communicates with a sensor module using a radio protocol such as Wifi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy or other radio protocol and allows the handheld application to provide one or more commands to the sensor module.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensor platform processes and converts sensor data in real time from digital signals or values to a corresponding impact, force or environmental value.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the handheld data receiver application provides real time reporting on the sensor module as data is being captured and provides a dynamic display in the form of a shock impact scale.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the handheld data receiver application allows a user to mark and record the occurrence of a force event that occurs as said sensor module is in a state of real time force, environmental or movement data capture during a production, packing, or distribution process and to correlate the event to a physical point of reference within such process.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein the handheld data receiver application transfers data to the web server application for further data analytics and data extraction capabilities.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the web server application that is configured to receive information from one or more handheld data receiver applications and perform operations comprising sensor data review, sensor administration and configuration, system administration, handheld data receiver application administration and configuration, and data reporting and analytics.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a subsystem to track and report hardware and software exceptions that exceed expected operational and force event thresholds within the sensor module.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a management subsystem to view status information on all sensor units, execute reports, issue commands to the sensor units or retrieve data from the sensor memory for maintenance and data management purposes, receive notification of hardware or software errors, provide software updates and upgrades to handheld data receiver application and provide wireless configuration administration to the handheld data receiver application to allow data communication with the sensor module.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises an authentication and licensing subsystem to manage and control the usage of the sensor module in accordance with the terms and condition associated with a client including, but not limited to, time-based licensing, location based licensing, facility based licensing and plant based licensing.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a client subsystem to view and produce current and historical reports on sensor modules for data analytics for quality assurance statistical process control and problem root cause analysis.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a client subsystem with a reporting module to view individual sensor data by data field, by vector sum of xyz fields per triaxial location, by velocity curve (with specified time in microseconds), by license information, and by tracked and recorded sensor module exceptions.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a client subsystem that determines the current status of licensing terms and conditions and provides a payment gateway integration to allow client payment for term expiry, modifications, and a change in license model.

28. The system of claim 21 wherein the web server application further comprises a data warehouse for performing analytics.

29. The system of claim 21 where in the web server application is further configured to perform machine learning.

30. The system of claim 1 where the backend processor or web server application or sensor platform or handheld application derives value information by a converted, correlated, interpreted and fused form of the sensor data which may be different than the form or units in which the information is measured in the sensor platform.