Anti-tamper cargo container locator system
First Claim
1. A system for detecting intrusion of a cargo container, wherein the cargo container is an enclosed container includes walls, a roof, a floor, and a door, the cargo container sensor system comprising:
- a first cargo container tag that is affixed to the cargo container at a first position, the first cargo container tag comprising;
a first pair of antennasa first radio subsystem block, wherein the first antenna pair of antennas and the first radio subsystem block are arranged in cooperation with one another to facilitate communications; and
a first data log block that is arranged to capture data associated with the first tag; and
a second cargo container tag that is affixed to the cargo container at a second position, the second cargo container tag comprising;
a second pair of antennas;
a second radio subsystem block, wherein the second pair of antennas and the second radio subsystem block are arranged in cooperation with one another to facilitate communications, wherein the first radio subsystem block and the second radio subsystem block are arranged to selectively communicate with one another to detect intrusion of the cargo container based on the selective communication.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to location and communication systems that can be utilized for locating cargo containers using tags with a radio communication subsystem in the form of a transponder or micro-transponder. Each cargo container tag (CCT) is capable of communicating with either other cargo container tags or a base-station (BS) locator devices. The tags can be arranged for tracking the opening and closing of doors on individual cargo containers using radio communication methods. Lost cargo container can be located using communications from a base station and the cargo container tags. CCT devices can also detect intrusions and/or tampering with cargo containers, and store a variety of collected data for later retrieval.
-
Citations
73 Claims
-
1. A system for detecting intrusion of a cargo container, wherein the cargo container is an enclosed container includes walls, a roof, a floor, and a door, the cargo container sensor system comprising:
-
a first cargo container tag that is affixed to the cargo container at a first position, the first cargo container tag comprising; a first pair of antennas a first radio subsystem block, wherein the first antenna pair of antennas and the first radio subsystem block are arranged in cooperation with one another to facilitate communications; and a first data log block that is arranged to capture data associated with the first tag; and a second cargo container tag that is affixed to the cargo container at a second position, the second cargo container tag comprising; a second pair of antennas; a second radio subsystem block, wherein the second pair of antennas and the second radio subsystem block are arranged in cooperation with one another to facilitate communications, wherein the first radio subsystem block and the second radio subsystem block are arranged to selectively communicate with one another to detect intrusion of the cargo container based on the selective communication. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
-
-
40. A method for a base station to track locations and intrusions of cargo containers that are each associated with one or more cargo container tags, the method for the base station comprising:
-
selecting each cargo containers tag for interrogation, wherein each cargo container tag is associated with a unique identifier; sending a transmission from the base station to the selected cargo container tag, wherein the transmission is encoded with the unique identifier for the selected cargo container tag; capturing radio signals from a radio signal spectrum associated with an expected reply from the selected cargo container tag; evaluating the captured radio signals from the radio signal spectrum to determine if a valid reply transmission was received from the selected cargo container tag; determining a distance and a direction of the selected cargo container tag relative to the base station when the valid reply transmission is received based on the round-trip time-of-flight between the transmission and the received reply; and logging the distance and direction of the selected cargo container tag in a database. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
-
-
47. A method for a cargo container tag to monitor conditions associated with a cargo container and communicate at least some monitored conditions to a base station, the method for the cargo container tag comprising:
-
periodically activating the cargo container tag from a low power state to an active state, wherein the cargo container tag is assigned to a unique identifier that is internally stored in the cargo container tag; during the active state; monitoring a condition associated with the cargo container; logging the monitored condition; capturing radio signals in a radio signal spectrum associated with an expected transmission from the base station; evaluating the captured radio signals to determine if a valid transmission is received for the cargo container tag, wherein the valid transmission is encoded with the unique identifier for the cargo container tag; when the valid transmission is not received, returning to the low power mode; when the valid transmission is received; detecting a carrier phase for the valid transmission to identify a detected carrier phase; comparing the detected carrier phase to a digitally synthesized carrier signal of the cargo container tag to identify a difference; adjusting one or more of the carrier phase, carrier frequency and cadence of the digitally synthesized carrier signal in the cargo container tag based on the identified difference; evaluating the received signals to determine if a valid command is received in the transmission; processing the valid command when received in the transmission; transmitting a reply transmission to the base station using the digitally synthesized carrier signal; and returning to the low power state after the reply transmission is completed. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
-
-
60. An inventory management system that is arranged for monitoring cargo containers in a predefined area, the system comprising:
-
a central processing unit that is arranged to process communications received from base station devices over a communication network; a plurality of base station devices that are each arranged at different locations within the predefined area, wherein each of the plurality of base station devices is arranged for communicating with the central processing unit over the communication network, and also for communicating with cargo container tags located within the predefined area, wherein a selected one of the base station devices is configured to encode a transmission sequence with a cargo container tag identifier, and transmit the encoded transmission sequence in a first wireless broadcast; and wherein each of the plurality of locators is configured to receive one or more reply transmission sequences after transmission of wireless broadcast is initiated, correlate each received reply transmission sequence with the cargo container tag identifier to generate a correlation vector for each received transmission sequence, extract information associated with a cargo container from the received reply transmission sequence, wherein the information includes one or more of an environmental condition of the cargo container, determine a time of arrival for each corresponding correlation vector, and forward each time of arrival, corresponding correlation vector, and any extracted information to the central processing unit for processing; a first cargo container tag that is arranged to receive the wireless transmission sequence, wherein the cargo container tag is associated with a cargo container that is positioned within the predefined area, and arranged to; receive and capture information from at least a portion of the wireless broadcast; correlate the captured information with an internally stored reference sequence, wherein the internally stored reference sequence is associated with a designated group; identify a correlation when the received and captured information correlates with the internally stored reference sequence; monitor a condition associated with the cargo container; encode a reply sequence with a cargo container identifier and the monitored condition after a correlation is identified; determine a precise time interval for transmitting the encoded reply sequence after the correlation is identified; and transmit the encoded reply sequence in a second wireless broadcast, wherein the transmission of the encoded reply sequence is transmitted at the precisely determined time interval to avoid transmission collisions; and a second cargo container tag is also associated with the cargo container that is positioned within the predefined area, wherein the second cargo container tag is arranged to monitor a condition within the cargo container, and wherein the second cargo container tag is arranged in communications with the first cargo container tag to communicate the monitored condition. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
-
Specification