Real-time automatic RFID inventory control system

• US 8,077,041 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2008
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.), Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Stern, Miklos, Bekritsky, Benjamin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US12/342,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20100156597A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• Field of Search: 3405721-5729, 340/568.1, 340/568.6, 340/10.3, 340/10.32, 340/825.49, 340/5.1, 340/5.73, 340/10.1
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisious for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a system for tracking store-items placed in a storage space. The system includes a plurality of wireless RFID readers distributed within the storage space such that at least one store-item, having an RFID tag attached, is within an interrogation range of at least one of the wireless RFID reader. The system further includes a monitoring server operative to communicate wirelessly with the a plurality of wireless RFID readers to obtain information collected by the plurality of wireless RFID readers from the RFID tag attached to the at least one store-item.

Claims

1. A system for tracking items present in a storage space, the system comprising:

a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers distributed within the storage space, wherein at least one item, having an RFID tag attached, is within an interrogation range of at least one of the plurality of RFID readers; and

a monitoring server operative to communicate wirelessly with the plurality of RFID readers,

wherein the plurality of RFID readers conduct inventory polls pertaining to items present within the storage space by interrogating RFID tags attached to items in the storage space, and send to the monitoring server the results obtained from each inventory poll, and

wherein the monitoring server combines the results from each inventory poll to determine which items are present in the storage space, and based on combining the results from each inventory poll, updating a database with the items that are present in the storage space.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of RFID readers are battery-powered.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of RFID readers are operative to be trickle charged with lighting available in the storage space.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitoring server sets an alert on receiving a power status, indicating low battery power, from at least one of the wireless RFID readers.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of RFID readers are operative at low duty cycle.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of RFID readers sends to the monitoring server a status update of their battery power level.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of RFID readers are AC-powered.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more RFID beacon tags with known location information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the wireless RFID readers is a portable handheld device.

10. system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of RFID readers comprises at least one of a dual-polarized antenna, a circularly polarized antenna, and an Omni-directional antenna.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of RFID readers turns ON after pre-specified time intervals to conduct an inventory poll.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring server instructs the plurality of RFID the readers to search for a specific item present in the storage space.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the results obtained from a first inventory poll are different from the results obtained from a second inventory poll.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the results obtained from a first inventory poll are different from the results obtained from a second inventory poll due to customers shuffling the items in the storage space, thereby changing the multi-path fading, shadowing of RFID tags by other RFID tags, or shadowing of RFID tags by a metal object.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring server displays the items that are present in the storage space in a user-friendly form through a graphical user interface.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the user-friendly form is a map of the storage space.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring server instructs the plurality of RFID readers to conduct the inventory polls.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring server instructs the plurality of RFID readers to search for a specific item present in the storage space.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising one of more RFID beacon tags with known location information that is used to determine a location of at least one of the plurality of RFID readers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the monitoring server identifies the location of at least one item present in the storage space and displays the location of the at least one item on a map of the storage space.

21. The system of claim 1, further comprising one of more RFID beacon tags with known location information that is used to determine a coverage area of at least one of the plurality of RFID readers.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the monitoring server identifies the location of at least one item present in the storage space and displays the location of the at least one item on a map of the storage space.