Method for determining juxtaposition of physical components with use of RFID tags

• US 6,847,856 B1
• Filed: 08/29/2003
• Issued: 01/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bohannon, Philip L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): Masinick, Michael D.
• Application Number:
  US10/651,740
• Time in Patent Office: 515 Days
• Field of Search: 700/214, 700/215, 700/115, 340/539.13, 340/572.1
• US Class Current: 700/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0029 the arrangement being specially adapted for wireless interrogation of grouped or bundled articles tagged with wireless record carriers

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are used for automatically determining the connectivity or alignment between physical components, including, for example, connectivity of network cables and device ports, as well as alignment of components assembled by automated manufacturing systems. In one embodiment of the invention, accurate determinations of the physical three-dimensional locations of cables and equipment are employed to determine which cables are plugged into which device ports of which pieces of equipment. In another embodiment of the invention, multiple RFID tags are used to determine the appropriate alignment between components being assembled by an automated manufacturing system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for determining physical juxtaposition between a first component and a second component, the method comprising the steps of:

determining, using one or more RFID readers, one or more relative locations between one or more RFID tags in a first set of RFID tags and one or more RFID tags in a second set of RFID tags;

determining one or more physical distances between said one or more RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and said one or more RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags based on said one or more determined relative locations, each RFID tag in the first set of RFID tags attached in a fixed positional relationship with the first component and each RFID tag in the second set of RFID tags attached in a fixed positional relationship with the second component; and

determining juxtaposition between the first component and the second component based on said determined physical distances between said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the physical distances between said RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags and said RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags comprises the steps of:

determining a physical location of each of said RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags;

determining a physical location of each of said RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags; and

comparing the determined locations of said RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags with the determined locations of said RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the physical distances between said RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags and said RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags comprises the steps of:

transmitting a signal to at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and to at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags;

receiving returned signals from the at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and from the at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags; and

measuring one or more relative delays between said receipt of said returned signal from the at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and from said receipt of said returned signal from the at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said first component comprises a cable connector attached to a cable, wherein said second component comprises a device port located on a faceplate of an associated equipment module, and wherein said step of determining juxtaposition between the cable connector and the device port comprises determining that said cable is connected to said device port.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said first component and said second component comprise components to be assembled with use of an automated manufacturing system, and wherein said step of determining juxtaposition between the first component and the second component comprises determining that the first component and the second component are spatially coordinated in a predetermined manner to allow for assembly thereof.

6. A computer implemented method for determining connectivity between a given one of a set of one or more device ports and a given one of a set of one or more cables, each device port located on a faceplate of an associated equipment module, each cable having at least one connector associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:

determining, using wireless technology, a relative location between a first RFID tag and a second RFID tag;

determining a physical distance between the first RFID tag and the second RFID tag based on said determined relative location, the first RFID tag attached to an associated connector of the given one of said cables and the second RFID tag associated with the given one of said device ports and attached to the faceplate of the equipment module associated with the given one of said device ports in a fixed positional relationship thereto; and

determining whether said given one of said cables is connected to said given one of said device ports based on said determined physical distance between the first RFID tag and the second RFID tag.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of determining the physical distance between the first RFID tag and the second RFID tag comprises the steps of:

determining a physical location of the first RFID tag;

determining a physical location of the second RFID tag; and

comparing the determined location of the first RFID tag with the determined location of the second RFID tag to determine a distance therebetween.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said determination that said given one of said cables is connected to said given one of said device ports is based on said determined distance between the determined location of the first RFID tag and the determined location of the second RFID tag being less than a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of determining the physical distance between the first RFID tag and the second RFID tag comprises the steps of:

transmitting a signal to the first RFD tag and to the second RFID tag,

receiving returned signals from the first RFID tag and from the second RFID tag; and

measuring a delay between said receipt of said returned signal from the first RFID tag and said receipt of said returned signal from the second RFID tag.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said determination that said given one of said cables is connected to said given one of said device ports is based on said measured delay being less than a predetermined threshold.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

determining a physical distance between the second RFID tag and each of a plurality of cable RFID tags, each cable RFID tag attached to associated connectors of said one or more cables; and

determining which of said one or more cables is connected to said given one of said device ports based on said determined physical distances between the second RFID tag and each of said plurality of cable RFID tags.

12. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

determining a physical distance between the first RFID tag and one or more port RFID tags, each port RFID tag associated with at least one of said device ports and attached to a faceplate of an equipment module associated with said at least one of said device ports; and

determining which of said one or more device ports is connected to said given one of said cables based on said determined distances between the first RFID tag and each of said plurality of port RFID tags.

13. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

determining a physical distance between each of a plurality of cable RFID tags and each of one or more port RFID tags, each cable RFID tag attached to associated connectors of said one or more cables and each port RFID tag associated with at least one of said device ports and attached to a faceplate of an equipment module associated with said at least one of said device ports; and

determining which of said one or more cables is connected to which of said one or more device ports based on said determined distances between the cable RFID tags and the port RFID tags.

14. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of triggering an alarm when it has been determined that a given cable is not connected to a given device port.

15. The method of claim 6 wherein each of said one or more cables has two connectors associated therewith, the method further comprising the step of determining which of said one or more device ports is connected to each of said connectors of each of said cables.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein each of said one or more cables has a plurality of additional RFID tags attached thereto at a corresponding plurality of locations along its length.

17. A computer implemented method for performing automated manufacturing by determining an inter-positional relationship between a first component and a second component, the method comprising the steps of:

determining, using wireless technology, one or more relative locations between one or more of a first set of RFID tags and one or more of a second set of RFID tags;

determining one or more physical distances between said one or more of a first set of RFID tags and said one or more of a second set of RFID tags based on said one or more determined relative locations, each RFID tag in said first set of RFID tags attached to the first component at a predetermined position thereupon and each RFID tag in said second set of RFID tags attached to the second component at a predetermined position thereupon;

determining a physical location of the first component relative to a physical location of the second component based on the determined physical distances between the RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags and the RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags; and

determining, based on the physical location of the first component relative to the physical location of the second component, whether the first component and the second component are spatially coordinated in a predetermined manner to allow for assembly thereof.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of determining one or more physical distances between RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags and RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags comprises the steps of:

determining a physical location of at least one RFID tag in the first set of RFID tags;

determining a physical location of at least one RFID tag in the second set of RFID tags;

comparing the determined physical location of said at least one RFID tag in the first set of RFID tags with the determined physical location of said at least one RFID tag in the second set of RFID tags.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of determining one or more physical distances between RFID tags in the first set of RFID tags and RFID tags in the second set of RFID tags comprises the steps of:

transmitting a signal to at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and to at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags;

receiving returned signals from the at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and from the at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags; and

measuring one or more relative delays between said receipt of said returned signal from the at least one of said RFID tags in said first set of RFID tags and from said receipt of said returned signal from the at least one of said RFID tags in said second set of RFID tags.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of determining the physical location of said first component relative to the physical location of said second component further comprises determining a physical orientation of at least one of said first component and said second component, and wherein the step of determining whether the first component and the second component are spatially coordinated in said predetermined manner to allow for assembly thereof further comprises determining whether said physical orientation of said at least one of said first component and said second component allows for said assembly thereof.

21. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of triggering an alarm when it has been determined that the physical location of said first component relative to the physical location of said second component is not spatially coordinated in said predetermined manner to allow for assembly thereof.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of guiding a manufacturing robot used in said automated manufacturing process based on said determination whether the first component and the second component are spatially coordinated in said predetermined manner to allow for assembly thereof.