Mobile RFID reader with integrated location awareness for material tracking and management

• US 7,388,491 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2005
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Tinnell, Kenneth A., Chand, Sujeet, Bapat, Vivek R., Hall, Kenwood H., Morse, Richard A., Owen, JR., Joseph P., Pietrzyk, Arthur P., Somogyi, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Lieu, Julie Bichngoc
• Application Number:
  US11/185,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20070018820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,063 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A portable RFID reader (or reader/writer) that also employs a location determination subsystem that facilitates determination of the reader (or reader/writer) location. The location subsystem can employ a satellite-based GPS (Global Positioning System) location technology where such signals are unimpeded by structures. Additionally, the location subsystem can employ other terrestrial location technologies that operate inside structures such as warehouses and the factory automation environment.

Claims

1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) system, comprising:

an RFID component that senses an RFID tag associated with an object;

a location component integral to the RFID component that facilitates determination of a location of the RFID component; and

a programmable logic controller (PLC) that receives RFID component location data and RFID tag data, and processes the RFID component location data and the RFID tag data in combination with data of PLC to facilitate the location of the tagged object.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the location component utilizes at least one of triangulation technology and signal strength technology to determine the location of the RFID component.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the location component utilizes GPS (global positioning system) technology to determine the location of the RFID component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location component generates location data that is transmitted from the reader with RFID data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein location data associated with the location is used for object flow and tracking.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the RFID component is one of a mobile reader and a mobile reader/writer.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the mobile reader is one of a handheld portable reader and a mechanically motivated reader.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein PLC data includes bar code data.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence (AI) component that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

10. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that facilitates carrying out sensing, location determination, and data processing of the RFID component, location component, and PLC, respectively, of the system of claim 1.

11. A handheld portable RFID reader that employs the system of claim 1.

12. An RFID system, comprising:

a mobile RFID reader that reads an RFID tag associated with an object;

a location component as part of the RFID reader that facilitates determination of location data of a location of the mobile RFID reader; and

a programmable logic controller (PLC) that receives RFID reader location data and RFID tag data and processes the RFID reader location data and the RFID tag data in combination with data of PLC to facilitate the location of the tagged object.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the location component utilizes at least one of triangulation technology and signal strength technology to determine the location data of the RFID reader.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the location component interfaces with a remote GPS technology to determine the GPS location data of the RFID reader, which GPS location data is transmitted from the RFID reader with RFID tag data.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the location component includes both a GPS location subsystem that receives and processes GPS location data and an inside location subsystem that interfaces to remote location system which operates inside a building or a structure, where GPS signals are impeded by the building or the structure.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising a filter component that filters received RFID tag data according to the location data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the location data resides in at least one of a database and the RFID reader.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising an artificial intelligence (AI) component as part of the RFID reader that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the RFID reader interfaces to a remote database system that employs an AI component facilitates probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the location data is also representative of material location, and which location data is processed with bar code data to determine a more accurate material location.

21. A method of determining location of a portable RFID reader, comprising:

receiving a portable reading device that performs at least one of reading from and writing to an RFID tag of an object;

providing a location subsystem as part of the portable reading device that communicates with an external location system to determine location data that represents the location of the portable reading device and an RFID tag read by the portable reading device;

transmitting the location data of the portable reading device and RFID tag data to a PLC; and

processing the location data of the portable reading device and RFID tag data in combination with data of PLC to determine the location of the tagged object.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising acts of:

receiving the location data into the location subsystem; and

transmitting the location data to a remote location for storage in response to reading the RFID tag.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising acts of:

receiving the location data into the location subsystem; and

transmitting the location data and tag data to a remote location for storage as sets of data at a time other than when the RFID tag is read.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising an act of writing the location data to the RFID tag in response to reading the RFID tag.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising an act of automatically switching from a first location mode of the location subsystem to a second location mode of the location subsystem when the first location mode is inoperative.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the first location mode processes GPS data and the second location mode processes indoor location information.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the indoor location information is derived from one of a triangulation technology and a signal strength measurement technology.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising an act of automatically caching data related to objects associated the location data.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising acts of:

automatically transmitting the location data and RFID tag data of the RFID tag to a PLC; and

processing the location data and PLC data to determine new location data associated with a new location of the RFID tag.

30. A portable RFID reader, comprising:

means for reading RFID data of an RFID tag;

means for interfacing to a remote geographic location system;

means for processing location data received from the remote geographic location system;

means for transmitting the RFID data and the location data for storage;

means for transmitting the location data and RFID data of an RFID tag to a PLC; and

means for processing the location data and RFID data in combination with data of PLC to determine the location of the RFID tag.

31. The reader of claim 30, further comprising means for writing to the RFID tag.

32. The reader of claim 30, wherein the remote geographic location system performs triangulation to generate the location data.

33. The reader of claim 30, wherein the remote geographic location system performs signal strength analysis to generate the location data.