Detection system for determining positional information about objects

• US 6,553,013 B1
• Filed: 08/02/1999
• Issued: 04/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Istel (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Laboratories-Cambridge Limited (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jones, Alan Henry, Ward, Andrew Martin Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Trinh, Sonny
• Application Number:
  US09/355,684
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/315, 370/345, 370/349, 370/503, 370/316, 370/336, 370/338, 370/350, 455/41, 455/456, 455/457, 340/3.51, 340/10.1, 340/505, 340/539, 340/825.69, 340/572.3, 340/572.4, 367/127, 367/128, 367/129, 342/118, 342/126, 342/458, 342/450
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/16 using difference in transit time between electrical and acoustic signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/74 Systems using reradiation of radio waves, e.g. secondary radar systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/74 Systems using reradiation of acoustic waves, e.g. IFF, i.e. identification of friend or foe
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/86 Combinations of sonar systems with lidar systems; Combinations of sonar systems with systems not using wave reflection
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/872 Combination of several systems for attitude determination using inertial means G01C9/00, control of attitude G05D1/49
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/876 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S15/872 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0247 Determining attitude
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/186 Determination of attitude using inertial means G01C9/00; control of attitude G05D1/49
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/30 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/521 Constructional features
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system which enables the position of each plurality of mobile labelled objects in a specified environment to be determined from the transit times to fixed receivers of ultrasound energy transmitted by object mounted transponders which are triggered by radio energy, wherein the specified environment is divided into cells each have a radio transmitter transmitting the radio triggered signals, these radio transmissions being multiplexed in accordance with identifying characteristics of the respective cells, no two cells with the same identifying characteristics overlapping one another.

Claims

1. A system which enables the position of each of a plurality of mobile labelled objects in a specified environment to be determined by determining the transit time of slowly propagating energy from a transmitter on each labelled object to a plurality of receivers positioned at fixed points within or around the specified environment, and computing therefrom the distances of the transmitter from the receiver, wherein the specified environment is spatially divided into overlapping cells each having a master transmitter for transmitting a burst of high speed propagating energy for detection by object mounted receivers associated with the object mounted transmitters within the compass of the cell (this transmitter/receiver combination hereafter being referred to as a transponder) and wherein each cell is allotted an identifying characteristic, the high speed energy transmissions by the different master transmitters are multiplexed in accordance with the identifying characteristics of the of the respective cells, and no two cells having the same identifying characteristic spatially overlap one another.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the slowly propagating energy is ultrasound energy and the high speed propagating energy is radio waves.

3. A system according to claim 1, having means incorporated in the multiplexing arrangement whereby the cells are invisible to each other, so that transmissions in one cell do not disrupt transmissions in neighbouring cells.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the invisibility of one cell to another is achieved by time-division multiplexing (TDM), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), or code-division multiplexing (CDM) of the high speed energy transmissions.

5. A system according to claim 3, wherein each cell is in effect allocated a colour, which is an identifying characteristic distinguishing between different cells in the multiplexing arrangement, which uses (x) channels and each cell is allocated one of the (x) channels and one of (x) colours indicating which of the (x) channels it uses.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein, when colours are assigned to cells, invisibility of any one cell relative to the other cells is ensured by ensuring that no two cells with the same colour overlap at any point in space.

7. A system according to claim 5, wherein a scheduling PC for each cell has a globally unique ID, transmitted as part of messages sent out by the transmitters in its associated cell, which allows mobile transponders to distinguish between cells with the same colour.

8. A system according to claim 5, wherein, when the multiplexing arrangement allows simultaneous transmission of addressing signals in overlapping cells (eg FDM, CDM), some or all colours use the same timeslots.

9. A system according to claim 5, wherein, when the multiplexing arrangement does not allow simultaneous transmission of the addressing signals in overlapping cells (eg TDM), timeslots are distributed between colours.

10. A system according to claim 5, wherein staggered triggering of mobile transponders within extended timeslots is employed to increase the aggregate location rate of the system.

11. A system according to claim 7, wherein, when a mobile transponder moves from one cell to another, the mobile transponder performs a “

hand over”

, so that the control of that mobile transponder passes from one scheduling PC to another, and the mobile transponder begins to receive messages via another cell.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the transfer of control of a mobile transponder may be passive or active, and in an active handover, the mobile transponder, scheduling PC or other monitoring service decides that a transfer of control is appropriate, and a passive handover occurs when a mobile transponder determines that it has started to receive messages from a new scheduling PC.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein if a decision to transfer control is established, the current scheduling PC sends a message to the mobile transponder indicating that a handover should take place, along with instructions on how to find the new cell and at the same time, a message is sent to the new (provisional) scheduling PC telling it to start addressing the mobile transponder until the provisional scheduling PC detects that the mobile transponder has picked up its addressing signals, whereupon the handover is complete and a message is sent to the old scheduling PC telling it to stop addressing the mobile transponder.

14. A system according to claim 12, wherein, in order to indicate to a new scheduling PC that it must start to address the mobile transponder, a mobile transponder registers its existence to a scheduling PC so that it will be included within the list of transponders to be addressed by the PC.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein after an active handover has occurred, the mobile transponder performs a registration process when it locks onto a new cell, and a special transmit bit is set in addressing messages from the new scheduling PC that are destined for the mobile transponder that is performing the handover.