Systems and methods that integrate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with agent-based control systems

• US 7,994,919 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2009
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Vrba, Pavel, Macurek, Filip, Marik, Vladimir, Hall, Kenwood H., Tichy, Pavel
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US12/481,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20090243808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 790 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/572.8, 340/572.9, 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 340/10.52, 235/382, 235/385, 235/492, 700/215, 700/217, 700/224
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25196 Radio link, transponder
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33055 Holon, agent executes task and cooperates with other, distributed control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that distribute electronic data, such as Electronic Product Code (EPC) data, obtained from RFID tags by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers and/or servers to agents within an agent-based control system. The systems and methods employ a component that collects, filters, processes, and stores electronic product data. The component collects electronic product data through corresponding reader and/or server interfaces. This data can be filtered to accept particular electronic product data, processed to a format suitable to the agents, and stored. Such storage can include delineating the electronic product data across rows of a table by electronic product code and across columns of the table by various types of data. Upon receiving a subscription and/or request from an agent for electronic product data, the component can obtain and convey the information to the agent.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates distribution of electronic product data, comprising:

a first component that stores structured electronic product data received from one or more RFID readers that obtain the electronic product data from RFID tags;

a second component that receives a query from an agent of an agent-based control system for at least a portion of the stored electronic product data, the agent is responsible for local decision making with respect to a portion of a manufacturing process and cooperates with at least one disparate agent to provide desirable global behavior of the agent-based control system; and

a third component that provides the portion of the electronic product data to the agent.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that associates the received electronic product data with an RFID reader that obtained the electronic product data.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that associates the received electronic product data with its RFID tag.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a component that associates the received electronic product data with a logical RFID reader.

5. The system of claim 1, the third component provides the portion of the electronic product data to the agent upon receipt by the first component if the agent has subscribed to receive the portion of the electronic product data.

6. The system of claim 1, the second component receives a query from the agent for a signal quality indicator associated with the portion of the electronic data, and the third component provides the requested signal quality indicator to the agent in response to the query.

7. The system of claim 1, the query from the agent includes a specification of a time period, and the portion of the electronic product data includes only data received by the first component during the specified time period.

8. The system of claim 1, the first component stores the electronic product data as a table of records, each record corresponding to an electronic product code and including at least a timestamp and a logical reader identifier.

9. The system of claim 1, the first component processes the received electronic product data to place the data in a format suitable for use by the agent.

10. The system of claim 1, the first component further comprising a filter that prevents storage of duplicate electronic data received from the one or more RFID readers.

11. A method for providing electronic data to agents in an agent-based control system, comprising:

receiving the historical electronic data from an RFID tag, wherein the historical electronic data comprising electronic product data obtained by an RFID reader;

storing the received historical electronic data;

receiving a query from an agent for historical electronic data; and

providing the historical electronic data as records to the agent via an inter-agent communication mechanism, the agent is responsible for local control of a portion of a manufacturing process and cooperates with at least one disparate agent to provide desirable global behavior of the agent-based control system.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising associating the received historical electronic data with the RFID tag from which the data was received.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a query from the agent for a signal quality indicator associated with the historical electronic data; and

providing the signal quality indicator to the agent in response to the request.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a specification of a time period as part of the query; and

providing only a subset of the historical electronic data that was received within the specified time period.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising converting the received historical electronic data to a format suitable for use by the agent.