Biodegradable device and mesh network for optimization of payload material delivery

• US 8,558,695 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Globalfoundries US Incorporated (GlobalFoundries, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bastide, Paul Roger, Broomhall, Matthew E., Loredo, Robert Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hung T.
• Application Number:
  US12/940,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20120116580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 340/540, 340/539.1, 340/573.1, 340/825.69, 340/10.1, 340/10.4, 700/240, 700/241, 702/2, 702/4, 705/5, 709/201, 324/71, 324/71.1
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2033/245 for agricultural purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/24 Earth materials G01N33/42 takes precedence

Abstract

A biodegradable payload material delivery and notification device includes a biodegradable shell enclosing at least a portion of a biodegradable detector that includes a payload material, and biodegradable circuitry electrically connected to the detector and capable of performing a delivery notification operation. The biodegradable shell degrades upon exposure to environmental conditions causing release of an amount of the payload material, and the detector communicates release of the amount of the payload material to the circuitry causing the circuitry to perform the delivery notification operation. The delivery notification operation includes generating and transmitting to a mesh network a signal having one or more parameters that are correlated with the amount of the payload material released. A mesh network includes a plurality of biodegradable devices and one or more edge collection devices. Each biodegradable device is configured to broadcast a signal that may be received and processed by the edge collection devices.

Claims

1. A biodegradable payload material delivery and notification device comprising:

a biodegradable shell enclosing at least a portion of a biodegradable detector, the detector comprising a payload material; and

biodegradable circuitry electrically connected to the detector and capable of performing a delivery notification operation;

wherein,

at least a portion of the biodegradable shell degrades upon exposure to one or more environmental conditions causing release of an amount of the payload material, and

the detector communicates release of the amount of the payload material to the circuitry causing the circuitry to perform the delivery notification operation, the delivery notification operation comprising generating and transmitting to a mesh network a signal having one or more parameters associated therewith that are correlated with the amount of the payload material released.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters associated with the signal that is transmitted to the mesh network as part of the delivery notification operation comprise at least one of:

a frequency of the signal; and

an amplitude of the signal.

3. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of biodegradable conductive leads,

wherein,

the detector comprises two or more of the plurality of conductive leads and is electrically connected to the circuitry via the two or more conductive leads, the payload material being disposed in proximity to the two or more conductive leads,

release of the amount of the payload material exposes and brings into contact at least a portion of the two or more conductive leads, and

the circuitry performs the delivery notification operation in response to a signal received from the detector indicating release of the amount of the payload material, the signal being generated upon contact of the at least a portion of the two or more conductive leads.

4. The device of claim 3, further comprising:

a biodegradable power source connected to the circuitry via one or more of the plurality of conductive leads; and

a biodegradable antenna connected to the circuitry via one or more of the plurality of conductive leads.

5. The device of claim 4, the circuitry capable of performing one or more additional operations comprising:

a signal receive operation in which the circuitry determines that a signal transmitted from another biodegradable device has been received by the antenna; and

a signal repeat operation in which the circuitry controls the antenna to re-transmit a signal received from another biodegradable device.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more environmental conditions comprise at least one of:

one or more chemical compounds present in a soil of an environment in which the biodegradable device is disposed;

one or more chemical compounds present in a gaseous atmosphere of the environment in which the biodegradable device is disposed;

decomposition of a mass of the payload material; and

a water content in the soil of the environment.

7. A mesh network comprising:

a plurality of biodegradable devices networked together in accordance with a network architecture and a network communications protocol; and

one or more edge collection devices;

wherein,

each biodegradable device is configured to transmit a signal to one or more other biodegradable devices in the mesh network, the signal comprising a data packet having a plurality of data bits including;

a first set of the data bits storing an origin identifier, and

a second set of the data bits storing one or more hop identifiers; and

the edge collection devices receive one or more signals from one or more of the plurality of biodegradable devices and process information included in the one or more received signals.

8. The mesh network of claim 7, wherein the edge collection devices generate a topographical map based on the processed information, the map indicating relative concentrations of payload material delivered by biodegradable devices in the mesh network.

9. The mesh network of claim 7, wherein each biodegradable device comprises:

a biodegradable shell enclosing at least a portion of a biodegradable detector, the detector comprising a payload material; and

biodegradable circuitry electrically connected to the detector and capable of performing a delivery notification operation;

wherein,

at least a portion of the biodegradable shell degrades upon exposure to one or more environmental conditions causing release of an amount of the payload material, and

the detector communicates release of the amount of the payload material to the circuitry causing the circuitry to perform the delivery notification operation, the delivery notification operation comprising generating and transmitting to the mesh network a signal having a parameter associated therewith that is correlated with the amount of the payload material released.

10. The mesh network of claim 9, wherein:

the origin identifier is associated with and provides information representing a location of a device that released the amount of the payload material and that generated and initially transmitted to the mesh network the signal comprising the data packet as part of the delivery notification operation, and

each of the hop identifiers is associated with and provides information representing a location of a biodegradable device that received the signal comprising the data packet from another device in the network.

11. The mesh network of claim 10, each biodegradable device in the network further comprising:

a plurality of biodegradable conductive leads,

a biodegradable power source connected to the circuitry via one or more of the plurality of conductive leads; and

a biodegradable antenna connected to the circuitry via one or more of the plurality of conductive leads,

wherein the circuitry of each biodegradable device in the mesh network is capable of performing one or more additional operations comprising;

a signal receive operation in which the circuitry determines that a signal transmitted from another biodegradable device has been received by the antenna; and

a signal repeat operation in which the circuitry controls the antenna to re-transmit a signal received from another biodegradable device.

12. The mesh network of claim 11, wherein the circuitry of a first device in the mesh network performs the signal repeat operation upon determining, as part of the signal receive operation, that a signal comprising a data packet has been received from a second device in the mesh network, the signal repeat operation comprising:

determining whether a first condition is satisfied, the first condition being satisfied if the second set of data bits of the data packet comprises an identifier associated with the first device among the stored hop identifiers; and

discarding the data packet if the first condition is satisfied.

13. The mesh network of claim 11, wherein if the first condition is not satisfied, the signal repeat operation further comprises:

determining whether a second condition is satisfied, the second condition being satisfied if the data packet comprises a sufficient number of available data bits for storing the identifier associated with the first device as a hop identifier;

wherein if the second condition is satisfied, the method further comprises;

storing the identifier associated with the first device among the available data bits of the data packet to generate a modified data packet; and

transmitting a signal comprising the modified data packet,

wherein if the second condition is not satisfied, the method further comprises;

re-transmitting the signal comprising the data packet.

14. A method for collecting and processing payload material delivery data, the method comprising:

establishing a mesh network comprising;

a plurality of biodegradable devices, and

one or more edge collection devices;

configuring each biodegradable device to transmit a signal to one or more other biodegradable devices in the mesh network, the signal comprising a data packet having a plurality of data bits including;

a first set of the data bits storing an origin identifier, and

a second set of the data bits storing one or more hop identifiers;

configuring the edge collection devices to receive one or more signals from one or more of the plurality of biodegradable devices; and

configuring the edge collection devices to process information included in the one or more received signals.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating a topographical map based on the processed information, the map indicating relative concentrations of payload material delivered by biodegradable devices in the mesh network.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each biodegradable device in the mesh network comprises:

a biodegradable shell enclosing at least a portion of a biodegradable detector, the detector comprising a payload material; and

biodegradable circuitry electrically connected to the detector and capable of performing a delivery notification operation;

wherein,

at least a portion of the biodegradable shell degrades upon exposure to one or more environmental conditions causing release of an amount of the payload material, and

the detector communicates release of the amount of the payload material to the circuitry causing the circuitry to perform the delivery notification operation, the delivery notification operation comprising generating and transmitting to a mesh network a signal having a parameter associated therewith that is correlated with the amount of the payload material released.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the origin identifier is associated with and provides information representing a location of a device that released the amount of the payload material and that generated and initially transmitted to the mesh network the signal comprising the data packet as part of the delivery notification operation, and

each of the hop identifiers is associated with and provides information representing a location of a biodegradable device that received the signal comprising the data packet from another device in the network.

18. The method of claim 17, each biodegradable device in the mesh network further comprising:

a plurality of conductive leads;

a biodegradable power source connected to the circuitry via at least a portion of the plurality of conductive leads; and

a biodegradable antenna connected to the circuitry via at least a portion of the plurality of conductive leads,

wherein the circuitry of each biodegradable device in the network is capable of performing one or more additional operations comprising;

a signal receive operation in which the circuitry determines that a signal transmitted from another biodegradable device has been received by the antenna; and

a signal repeat operation in which the circuitry controls the antenna to re-transmit a signal received from another biodegradable device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the circuitry of a first device in the mesh network performs the signal repeat operation upon determining, as part of the signal receive operation, that a signal comprising a data packet has been received from a second device in the mesh network, the signal repeat operation comprising:

determining whether a first condition is satisfied, the first condition being satisfied if the second set of data bits comprises an identifier associated with the first device among the stored hop identifiers; and

discarding the data packet if the first condition is satisfied.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein if the first condition is not satisfied, the signal repeat operation further comprises:

determining whether a second condition is satisfied, the second condition being satisfied if the data packet comprises a sufficient number of available data bits for storing the identifier associated with the first device as a hop identifier,

wherein if the second condition is satisfied, the method further comprises;

storing the identifier associated with the first device among the available data bits of the data packet to generate a modified data packet; and

transmitting a signal comprising the modified data packet,

wherein if the second condition is not satisfied, the method further comprises;

re-transmitting the signal comprising the data packet.