INTRUDER DETECTION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090303042A1
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: Lin, Chih-Sheng, Lin, Chia-Hao, Yang, Su-Hen, Song, Kai-Tai
• Granted Patent: US 8,111,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/566
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19647 Systems specially adapted for intrusion detection in or around a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range

Abstract

This invention is an intruder detection system which integrates wireless sensor network and security robots. Multiple ZigBee wireless sensor modules installed in the environment can detect intruders and abnormal conditions with various sensors, and transmit alert to the monitoring center and security robot via the wireless mesh network. The robot can navigate in the environment autonomously and approach to a target place using its localization system. If any possible intruder is detected, the robot can approach to that location, and transmit images to the mobile devices of the securities and users, in order to determine the exact situation in real time.

Claims

1. An intruder detection system having the ability to autonomously patrol and the function of networked monitoring, comprising:

a plurality of sensors, deployed everywhere in the environment for security, one of said plurality of sensors sending an intrusion signal comprising at least the identification (ID) number of said sensor when detecting an intrusion condition;

a wireless network for transmitting said intrusion signal sent by said sensor, said plurality of sensors being installed at each node of said wireless network;

a robot capable of autonomously patrolling for receiving said intrusion signal through said wireless network, locating said sensor in accordance with the ID number of said sensor, approaching said location to capture an environmental image with respect to an environmental condition, and sending said environmental image via a wireless image transmitting device after compressing said environmental image; and

a remote module for receiving said environmental image via a remote receiving device.

2. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said wireless network is a mesh network and said intrusion signal sent by said sensor at any node can be transmitted to said robot via other nodes.

3. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said robot locates said sensor by looking it up in a comparison table in accordance with the ID number of said sensor comprised in said intrusion signal.

4. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said robot adjusts the weight between the signal strength positioning method which positions said robot according to the strength of said plurality of sensors'"'"' signals and the odometer positioning method which positions said robot by estimating the orientation and traveling distance of said robot itself, so as to overcome the problems of accumulated error in position estimation of conventional odometer method and insufficient precision of wireless signal strength positioning.

5. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said robot has a distance measuring device, by which the distance between said robot and an obstacle is determined so that the traveling path of said robot can be adjusted based thereon.

6. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of sensors comprise:

at least one kind of pyro sensors, capacitance microphone sensors and 3-axis accelerometers (vibration detectors).

7. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said intrusion condition comprises:

any one of abnormal sound, abnormal vibration and someone approaching.

8. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said wireless image transmitting device is any one of an RF wireless transmitting device, a 3G mobile-phone card and a WiFi wireless network device.

9. The intruder detection system according to claim 1, wherein said remote receiving device is a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone or other mobile devices having the network function.

10. An intruder detection method, comprising the following steps executed by a robot having the ability to autonomously patrol, a network having the monitoring function and a remote device:

an intruder detection step, in which one of a plurality of sensors deployed everywhere in the environment sends an intrusion signal comprising the ID number of said sensor when detecting an intrusion condition;

an intrusion signal transmitting step, in which said intrusion signal is transmitted through a wireless network having said plurality of sensors installed therein;

an environmental image capturing step, in which said robot receives said intrusion signal through said wireless network, locates said sensor in accordance with the ID number of said sensor, approaches said location to capture an environmental image with respect to an environmental condition, and after compressing said environmental image, sends said compressed environmental image via a wireless image transmitting device; and

a remote receiving step, in which a remote receiving device receives said compressed environmental image.

11. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said wireless network is constructed as a mesh network and said intrusion signal sent by said sensor at any node can be transmitted to said robot via other nodes.

12. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said robot locates said sensor by looking it up in a comparison table in accordance with the ID number of said sensor comprised in said intrusion signal.

13. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said robot adjusts the weight between the signal strength positioning method which positions said robot according to the strength of said plurality of sensors'"'"' signals and the odometer positioning method which positions said robot by estimating the orientation and traveling distance of said robot itself, so as to overcome the problems of accumulated error in position estimation of conventional odometer method and insufficient precision of wireless signal strength positioning.

14. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said robot determines the distance between said robot and an obstacle with a distance measuring device, thereby adjusting the traveling path of said robot.

15. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said plurality of sensors comprise:

at least one kind of pyro sensors, capacitance microphone sensors and 3-axis accelerometers (vibration detectors).

16. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said intrusion condition comprises:

any one of abnormal sound, abnormal vibration and someone approaching.

17. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said wireless image transmitting device is any one of an RF wireless transmitting device, a 3G mobile-phone card and a WiFi wireless network device.

18. The intruder detection method according to claim 10, wherein said remote receiving device is a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone or other mobile devices having the network function.