Radio frequency identification system for tracking and managing materials in a manufacturing process
First Claim
1. An inventory tracking system for use in tracking placement of physical items within an inventory tracking region, comprising:
- a radio frequency tag detection system including;
a plurality of radio frequency antennas disposed in a spaced apart manner within the inventory tracking region; and
a detection controller coupled to the plurality of radio frequency antennas, the detection controller including a beam-steering control system that controls the operation of each of the radio frequency antennas, wherein one of the plurality of radio frequency antennas uses a beam to scan a portion of the inventory tracking region to detect a current physical location of one or more radio frequency tags disposed in a scanned portion of the inventory tracking region, wherein the current physical location corresponds to a position defined by two coordinate units in a multi-dimensional coordinate system and the value of each of the two coordinate units is determined by the one of the plurality of radio frequency antennas, and wherein the detection controller generates indications of the one or more detected radio frequency tags and the current physical locations of the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory tracking region; and
a tracking system coupled to the radio frequency tag detection system to receive the indications of the one or more detected radio frequency tags and the current physical locations of the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory tracking region, the tracking system including;
a memory for storing inventory item information for each of a plurality of inventory items, the inventory item information for each of the plurality of inventory items including an inventory item radio frequency tag identifier, inventory item identification information defining the identity of the inventory item, and an indication of the current physical location of the inventory item within the inventory tracking region; and
an access system that accesses the memory and provides at least a subset of the inventory item information for one or more of the inventory items to a user for determining the current physical location of the one or more of the inventory items within the inventory tracking region,wherein the tracking system updates the indication of the current physical location of at least one particular inventory item within the inventory tracking region as stored in the memory for the at least one particular inventory item based on the indication of the current physical location of the one or more detected radio frequency tags for at the least one particular inventory item as produced by the detection controller.
1 Assignment
2 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A process management system uses a radio frequency identification (RFID) detection system in the form of, for example, a phased array antenna based RFID detection system to track and manage material storage and flow in a manufacturing process or plant. The process management system operates in conjunction with the various machines that implement manufacturing stages or steps of the manufacturing process to assure that the correct materials and processing procedures are used at or on the various production machines of the process to produce a particular product as defined by a job number or job order. The process management system is thereby able to increase the efficiencies of the plant and to increase the quality of the plant production by reducing or eliminating waste, manufacturing errors and shipping errors in the production facility.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. An inventory tracking system for use in tracking placement of physical items within an inventory tracking region, comprising:
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a radio frequency tag detection system including; a plurality of radio frequency antennas disposed in a spaced apart manner within the inventory tracking region; and a detection controller coupled to the plurality of radio frequency antennas, the detection controller including a beam-steering control system that controls the operation of each of the radio frequency antennas, wherein one of the plurality of radio frequency antennas uses a beam to scan a portion of the inventory tracking region to detect a current physical location of one or more radio frequency tags disposed in a scanned portion of the inventory tracking region, wherein the current physical location corresponds to a position defined by two coordinate units in a multi-dimensional coordinate system and the value of each of the two coordinate units is determined by the one of the plurality of radio frequency antennas, and wherein the detection controller generates indications of the one or more detected radio frequency tags and the current physical locations of the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory tracking region; and a tracking system coupled to the radio frequency tag detection system to receive the indications of the one or more detected radio frequency tags and the current physical locations of the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory tracking region, the tracking system including; a memory for storing inventory item information for each of a plurality of inventory items, the inventory item information for each of the plurality of inventory items including an inventory item radio frequency tag identifier, inventory item identification information defining the identity of the inventory item, and an indication of the current physical location of the inventory item within the inventory tracking region; and an access system that accesses the memory and provides at least a subset of the inventory item information for one or more of the inventory items to a user for determining the current physical location of the one or more of the inventory items within the inventory tracking region, wherein the tracking system updates the indication of the current physical location of at least one particular inventory item within the inventory tracking region as stored in the memory for the at least one particular inventory item based on the indication of the current physical location of the one or more detected radio frequency tags for at the least one particular inventory item as produced by the detection controller. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of tracking inventory within an inventory region, comprising:
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periodically scanning the inventory region with one or more radio frequency antennas using a beam steering scanning technique, wherein one of the one or more radio frequency antennas scans a portion of the inventory region to detect one or more radio frequency tags disposed in a scanned portion of the inventory region, each of the one or more radio frequency tags being associated with an inventory item; determining a current physical location for the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory region based on the detection of the one or more radio frequency tags within a scan, wherein the current physical location corresponds to a position defined by two coordinate units in a multi-dimensional coordinate system and the value of each of the two coordinate units is determined by the one of the one or more radio frequency antennas, and wherein the current physical location for the one or more detected radio frequency tags is resolved to a region less than the coverage area of any of the radio frequency antennas; storing, in a computer readable memory, for each of the one or more detected radio frequency tags, inventory item information, wherein the inventory item information for a radio frequency tag includes an inventory item radio frequency tag identifier, inventory item identification information defining the identity of the inventory item, and current physical location information for the inventory item; updating the current physical location information of at least one inventory item within the inventory region as stored in the computer readable memory based on the determined current physical location of the one or more detected radio frequency tags for the at the least one inventory item as determined during one or more scans; and accessing the stored inventory item information to determine the current physical location of the one or more of the set of inventory items within the inventory region. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of tracking inventory within an inventory region, comprising:
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periodically scanning the inventory region with one or more radio frequency antennas using a beam steering scanning technique, wherein one of the one or more radio frequency antennas scans a portion of the inventory region to detect one or more radio frequency tags disposed in a scanned portion of the inventory region, each of the one or more radio frequency tags being associated with a different inventory item; determining a current physical location for the one or more detected radio frequency tags in the scanned portion within the inventory region based on the detection of the one or more radio frequency tags within a scan, wherein the current physical location corresponds to a position defined by two coordinate units in a multi-dimensional coordinate system, and the value of each of the two coordinate units is determined by the one of the one or more radio frequency antennas, and wherein the current physical location of the one or more detected radio frequency tags is resolved to a region less than the coverage area of any of the radio frequency antennas; storing inventory item information in a computer readable memory for each of the different inventory items, the inventory item information for a particular inventory item including a radio frequency tag identifier, inventory item identification information defining the identity of the inventory item, and current physical location information for the inventory item; updating the current physical location information of each of the inventory items within the inventory region as stored in the computer readable memory based on the determined current physical location of the one or more detected radio frequency tags for the inventory items as determined during one or more scans; and enabling access to the stored inventory item information for each of the inventory items to determine the current physical location of the inventory items within the inventory region. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification