Systems, methods and devices for asset status determination

• US 9,641,964 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2016
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CloudLeaf, Inc
• Original Assignee: CloudLeaf, Inc
• Inventors: Kulkarni, Raghavendra, Narahari, Sharath, Roopreddy, Ravindar
• Primary Examiner(s): AJIBADE AKONAI, OLUMIDE
• Application Number:
  US15/003,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20160142868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 467 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0257 Hybrid positioning by coordinating position lines of different shape G01S5/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2462 Asset location systems combined with EAS inventory, tracking, logistic G06Q10/00; entrance control systems G07C9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/24 with receiving set
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system for managing data related to at least one leaf node device, the system including a location processing engine located on a server that is remote from the at least one leaf node device; at least one point of interest (POI) device for collecting data relating to at least one leaf node device and transmitting the collected data with a timestamp using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE); at least one reader node device for receiving the collected data from the point of interest (POI) device using BLE and transmitting the collected data to the location processing engine; and a database of the known locations of POI devices, wherein the known locations are used as a basis for determining the location of the at least one leaf node device that communicated with the POI device.

Claims

1. A method for real time location of at least one leaf node device, comprising:

taking at least one of signal strength information, proximity information and phase angle information collected via Bluetooth Low Energy communication signals from the leaf node device, wherein the information from the leaf node device is collected by at least two collection devices wherein each collection device is from the group consisting of reader nodes and point of interest devices;

delivering the collected information to a processing engine that is remote from the leaf node device;

processing the collected information in real time to determine the location of the leaf node device; and

further comprising calculating an average location for a leaf node device based on two or more determinations of location for the leaf node device, wherein each of the determinations of location is based on data from a different one of the at least two collection devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the calculated average location of the leaf node device in a database.

3. A system for managing assets, comprising:

a leaf node device associated with an asset;

a plurality of point of interest (POI) devices each at a corresponding known location, the plurality of POI devices each having a respective boundary and collecting data relating to the asset via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication signals from the leaf node device on each of a plurality of channels when the leaf node device is within the respective boundary;

a location processing engine remote from the leaf node device and the plurality of POI devices; and

a database of known locations corresponding to each of the plurality of POI devices,

wherein each of the plurality of POI devices that has collected data relating to the asset communicates the collected data relating to the asset to the location processing engine,

wherein the collected data from each of the plurality of POI devices is averaged across the plurality of channels, wherein the location processing engine accesses the database and determines the location of the asset based on the averaged collected data related to the asset and known locations of the plurality of POI devices.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the plurality of point of interest (POI) devices uses one of an omnidirectional antenna and a directional antenna.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the collected data on each of the plurality of channels is at least one of signal strength information, proximity information and phase angle information.

6. The system of claim 3, further comprising a sensor associated with the asset, the sensor detecting data of a condition of said asset.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the collected data relating to the asset comprises said data of a condition of said asset.

8. The system of claim 3 further comprising a remote server in communication with the plurality of POI devices.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the location processing engine is on the remote server.