Managing of items distributed in a global supply chain

• US 8,195,189 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2007
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Vennelakanti, Ravigopal, Gupta, Manish
• Primary Examiner(s): Gesesse, Tilahun B
• Application Number:
  US11/781,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20080258915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,779 Days
• Field of Search: 455/500, 455/41.1, 455/444, 455/456.1, 455/457, 455/404.1, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method for determining locations in a predefined area for placing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader in order to obtain a full coverage of the predefined area is provided. The method includes arranging a plurality of hexagonal area to form a combined area until the total area of the combined area is equal or larger than the predefined area, aligning the predefined area within the combined area, and determining the hexagonal area which is fully or partially covered by the predefined area. Each hexagonal area represents an area of coverage of the RFID reader, and the center of the hexagonal area which is determined to be fully or partially covered by the predefined area corresponds to one of the locations for placing the RFID reader.

Claims

1. A method for determining locations in a predefined area for placing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader in order to obtain a full coverage of the predefined area, comprising:

arranging a plurality of hexagonal areas together to form a combined area until the total area of the combined area is at least equal to the predefined area, wherein each hexagonal area represents an area of coverage of the RFID reader;

aligning the predefined area within the combined area; and

determining the hexagonal areas which are at least partially covered by the predefined area,

wherein the center of the hexagonal area which is determined to be at least partially covered by the predefined area corresponds to one of the locations for placing the RFID reader.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of hexagonal area in the combined area are arranged in such a way that there are no gaps between each hexagonal area.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the length of each edge of the hexagonal area is equal to a reading range of the RFID reader.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined area is a rectangular area.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the rectangular area is the smallest area of rectangle that encloses the predefined area determined using a Minimum Area Enclosing Rectangle (MAER) algorithm.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein aligning the predefined area within the combined area comprises arranging the rectangular area on the combined area such that a vertex of the rectangular area coincides with a vertex of a hexagonal area in the combined area, and an edge of the rectangular area extending from the vertex of the rectangular area coincides with an edge of the hexagonal area extending from the vertex of the hexagonal area.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining the number of hexagonal areas which are fully or partially covered by the rectangular area; and

selecting an alignment of the rectangular area on the combined area which results in the lowest number of hexagonal area which is fully or partially covered by the rectangular area as the optimized alignment.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of hexagonal areas which are fully or partially covered by the rectangular area is determined using the following expression:

9. The method of claim 8, wherein

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising placing a RFID reader at the centre of every RFID reader which is determined to be fully or partially covered by the predefined area.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a path in the predefined area, wherein the path is defined such that it passes through all the locations determined in the predefined area for placing the RFID reader;

moving the RFID reader along the defined path in the predefined area;

stopping the RFID reader for a preset time at a location determined for placing a RFID reader;

reading any RFID information at that location; and

moving the RFID reader to a next location determined for placing the RFID reader.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dividing the predefined area into a plurality of sub-areas;

providing a RFID reader for each sub-area; and

in each sub-area;

defining a path in the sub-area, wherein the path is defined such that it passes through all the locations in the sub-area determined for placing the RFID reader;

moving the RFID reader along the defined path in the sub-area,

stopping the RFID reader for a preset time at a location in the sub-area determined for placing a RFID reader;

reading any RFID information at that location; and

moving the RFID reader to a next location in the sub-area determined for placing the RFID reader.

13. A location optimizing unit for determining locations in a predefined area for placing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader in order to obtain a full coverage of the predefined area, comprising:

a hexagon field generator for receiving a reading range of the RFID reader and generating a combined area comprised of a plurality of hexagonal areas, wherein the length of each edge of the hexagonal area represents the reading range of the RFID reader;

a rectangular area generator for receiving dimensions of the predefined area and generating a rectangular area representing the predefined area;

an alignment optimizer for receiving the combined area and the rectangular area, and aligning the rectangular area with the combined area and determining the hexagonal areas which are at least partially covered by the rectangular area; and

a hexagon center locator for determining the centre of the hexagonal areas which fully are at least partially covered by the rectangular area,

wherein the determined center of the hexagonal areas corresponds to the locations for placing the RFID reader.

14. The location optimizing unit of claim 13, wherein the alignment optimizer determines the alignment of the rectangular area with the combined area such that rectangular area covers the lowest number of hexagonal areas in the combined area as the optimized alignment.

15. The location optimizing unit of claim 14, wherein the alignment optimizer further comprises:

a rectangle on hexagon aligner for aligning the rectangular area with the combined area in all possible ways;

a hexagon counter for calculating the number of hexagonal areas in the combined area that are fully or partially covered by the rectangular area for each possible alignment from the rectangle on hexagon aligner; and

a comparator for comparing the number of hexagonal areas of each possible alignments and identifying the alignment which requires the lowest number of hexagonal areas.

16. The location optimizing unit of claim 15, wherein the hexagon counter calculates the number of hexagonal areas which are fully or partially covered by the rectangular area using the following expression:

17. The location optimizing unit of claim 16, wherein

18. The location optimizing unit of claim 13, further comprising a Minimum Area Enclosing Rectangle (MAER) calculator for receiving the dimensions of the predefined area from the rectangular area generator, and determining the smallest area of rectangle that encloses the predefined area, wherein the smallest area of rectangle is the rectangular area generated by the rectangular area generator.