Location system for street light monitoring
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for a street light monitoring system providing automated position estimation capabilities for all street lights being present in the street light system and thereby enabling efficient management of street lamps, the method comprising:
- providing each street lamp of a network of numerous street lamps with a node controller and a ballast controller, the node controllers of the street lamps communicating to each other using wireless devices to build up a mesh network;
providing a number of cluster controllers, the cluster controllers controlling a subset of the street lamps in the network and being equipped with a transceiver, the transceiver communicating to the mesh network;
providing a cluster head, the cluster head controlling the network of street light and being coupled to the number of cluster controllers based on an external network;
providing a small fraction of the street lamps in the network and less than 30% of the street lamps in the network as anchor street lamps with their absolute and relative coordinates;
determining the average hop length in any minimum length path between two anchor street lamps;
determining for each street lamp in the network not being provided with their absolute and relative coordinates as blind street lamps the distance of the blind street lamp to the nearest anchor street lamps based on path loss evaluating received signal strength indication, RSSI, between the street lamps in the path to the nearest anchor street lamps, assigning the measured path loss values to pre-determined distance categories, assigning the distance categories to hop link values and multiplying the hop link values with the average hop length in the respective path;
inferring for each blind street lamp in the network a coarse position using multi-lateration based on the determined distances to the nearest anchor street lamps for that blind street lamp; and
adjusting the coarse position by selecting for each blind street lamp coarse position the closest possible real position and if no closest possible real position is present classify the blind street lamp as not positioned.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A street light monitoring system has a small fraction of the street lights in the system being anchor nodes that are configured to detect and store their own actual fixed position, thereby acting as reference points. Further, the other street lights are referred to as blind nodes and do not have their actual fixed position but can derive their position using the coordinates of the anchor nodes and estimating their distance to them. The distance estimation for any blind node can be performed using a received signal strength indication (RSSI) measured at the respective blind node for small distances of up to a threshold value and a link quantization technique takes advantage of the typical placement of the street lights. Inferred distances between the street lights can be assigned to pre-determined categories of distances for a coarse estimation and further position adjustment to a closest possible “real” position.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for a street light monitoring system providing automated position estimation capabilities for all street lights being present in the street light system and thereby enabling efficient management of street lamps, the method comprising:
-
providing each street lamp of a network of numerous street lamps with a node controller and a ballast controller, the node controllers of the street lamps communicating to each other using wireless devices to build up a mesh network; providing a number of cluster controllers, the cluster controllers controlling a subset of the street lamps in the network and being equipped with a transceiver, the transceiver communicating to the mesh network; providing a cluster head, the cluster head controlling the network of street light and being coupled to the number of cluster controllers based on an external network; providing a small fraction of the street lamps in the network and less than 30% of the street lamps in the network as anchor street lamps with their absolute and relative coordinates; determining the average hop length in any minimum length path between two anchor street lamps; determining for each street lamp in the network not being provided with their absolute and relative coordinates as blind street lamps the distance of the blind street lamp to the nearest anchor street lamps based on path loss evaluating received signal strength indication, RSSI, between the street lamps in the path to the nearest anchor street lamps, assigning the measured path loss values to pre-determined distance categories, assigning the distance categories to hop link values and multiplying the hop link values with the average hop length in the respective path; inferring for each blind street lamp in the network a coarse position using multi-lateration based on the determined distances to the nearest anchor street lamps for that blind street lamp; and adjusting the coarse position by selecting for each blind street lamp coarse position the closest possible real position and if no closest possible real position is present classify the blind street lamp as not positioned. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A non-transistory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that, when run on a computer, are configured for performing the steps of:
-
providing each street lamp of a network of numerous street lamps with a node controller and a ballast controller, the node controllers of the street lamps communicating to each other using wireless devices to build up a mesh network; providing a number of cluster controllers, the cluster controllers controlling a subset of the street lamps in the network and being equipped with a transceiver, the transceiver communicating to the mesh network; providing a cluster head, the cluster head controlling the network of street light and being coupled to the number of cluster controllers based on an external network; providing a small fraction of the street lamps in the network and less than 30% of the street lamps in the network as anchor street lamps with their absolute and relative coordinates; determining the average hop length in any minimum length path between two anchor street lamps; determining for each street lamp in the network not being provided with their absolute and relative coordinates as blind street lamps the distance of the blind street lamp to the nearest anchor street lamps based on path loss evaluating received signal strength indication, RSSI, between the street lamps in the path to the nearest anchor street lamps, assigning the measured path loss values to pre-determined distance categories, assigning the distance categories to hop link values and multiplying the hop link values with the average hop length in the respective path; inferring for each blind street lamp in the network a coarse position using multi-lateration based on the determined distances to the nearest anchor street lamps for that blind street lamp; and adjusting the coarse position by selecting for each blind street lamp coarse position the closest possible real position and if no closest possible real position is present classify the blind street lamp as not positioned.
-
-
8. A system ,comprising:
-
a network of street lamps, each street lamp equipped with a node controller and a ballast controller, the node controllers of the street lamps communicating to each other using wireless devices to build up a mesh network; a plurality of cluster controllers, each of the plurality of cluster controllers controlling a subset of the street lamps in the network and being equipped with a transceiver, the transceiver communicating to the mesh network; a cluster head, the cluster head controlling the network of street lamps and being coupled to the plurality of cluster controllers based on an external network; a plurality of anchor street lamps, the plurality of anchor street lamps being less than 30% the street lamps in the network and being provided with respective absolute and relative coordinates; means for determining the average hop length in any minimum length path between two anchor street lamps; a plurality of blind street lamps, each of the plurality of blind street lamps not being provided with absolute and relative coordinates; means for determining the distances of each blind street lamp to the nearest anchor street lamps based on path loss evaluation using received signal strength indication between street lamps in a path to the nearest anchor street lamps, assigning measured path loss values to pre-determined distance categories, assigning the distance categories to hop link values, and multiplying the hop link values with the average hop length in the respective path; means for inferring for each blind street lamp in the network a coarse position using multi-lateration based on the determined distances to the nearest anchor street lamps for that blind street lamp; and means for adjusting the coarse position by selecting for each blind street lamp coarse position the closest possible real position and if no closest possible real position is present then classifying the blind street lamp as not positioned. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method, comprising:
-
for a small fraction of street lights in a street light system, providing absolute and relative coordinates for the street lights, each such street light being referred to as an anchor street light; determining an average hop length in any minimum length path between two anchor street lights; determining for each street light not provided with absolute and relative coordinates, where each such street light is referred to as a blind street light, the distance of the blind street light to the nearest anchor street light being based on a received signal strength indication between street lights in a path to the nearest anchor street light; assigning measured path loss values to pre-determined distance categories; assigning distance categories to hop link values and multiplying the hop link values by the average hop length in the respective path; inferring for each blind street light a coarse position using multi-lateration based on the determined distances to the nearest anchor street lamps for that blind street lamp; and adjusting the coarse position of each blind street light by selecting a nearest possible real position. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A street light monitoring system, comprising:
-
a network of street lamps, each street lamp including a node controller and the node controllers of the street lamps communicating with each to form a mesh network; a plurality of cluster controllers, each cluster controller communicating through the mesh network to control a subset of the street lamps in the network; a cluster head operable to control the network of street lamps and being coupled to the cluster controllers through an external network; a plurality of anchor street lamps wherein the plurality is a small fraction of the total number of street lamps in the network; a plurality of blind street lamps corresponding to the remaining street lamps in the network; control circuitry operable to determine the position of the blind street lamps through link quantization, multi-hop distance estimation, and street lamp position adjustment. - View Dependent Claims (21)
-
Specification