LED-based lighting methods, apparatus, and systems employing LED light bars, occupancy sensing, local state machine, and time-based tracking of operational modes

• US 8,531,134 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OSRAM Sylvania Inc. (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: Digital Lumens, Inc. (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Chemel, Brian J., Piepgras, Colin, Kondo, Steve T., Johnston, Scott D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thuy Vinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Arpin, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US12/822,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• Field of Search: 315/297, 315/291, 315/294, 315/307, 315/308, 315/312, 315/317, 315/318, 315/360
• US Class Current: 315/308
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 2/00 Systems of lighting devices, not provided for in main groups F21S4/00 - F21S10/00 or F21S19/00, e.g. of modular construction
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 4/20 with light sources held by or within elongate supports
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 4/28 rigid, e.g. LED bars
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 8/086 with lighting device attached sideways of the standard, e.g. for roads and highways
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 19/04 with provision for changing light source, e.g. turret auxiliary devices for cleaning, placing, or removing incandescent lamps H01K3/32, fluorescent lamps H01J9/006
• CPC Class Codes: F21W 2131/10 Outdoor lighting
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

In embodiments of the present invention, a method and system is provided for designing improved intelligent, LED-based lighting systems. The LED based lighting systems may include fixtures with one or more of rotatable LED light bars, integrated sensors, onboard intelligence to receive signals from the LED light bars and control the LED light bars, and a mesh network connectivity to other fixtures.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture to provide variable occupancy-based lighting, the lighting fixture comprising:

a housing;

at least one occupancy sensor, disposed in or coupled to the housing, to provide occupancy information;

a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) disposed in the housing to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting at a plurality of light levels;

a power management module (PMM), disposed in the housing and operatively coupled to the at least one occupancy sensor and the plurality of LEDs, to adjust the variable occupancy-based lighting based at least in part on the occupancy information provided by the at least one occupancy sensor, the power management module including;

a memory to store lighting parameters, wherein the lighting parameters include at least an active power output level of the plurality of light levels and an inactive power output level of the plurality of light levels; and

a digital light agent controller to implement a state machine to analyze the occupancy information and control the plurality of LEDs based on the lighting parameters in the memory so as to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting at the active power output level of the plurality of light levels or the inactive power output level of the plurality of light levels; and

a real-time clock, operatively coupled to the power management module, to generate an output as a unit of time to facilitate tracking time-based operational modes associated with the lighting fixture,

wherein the digital light agent controller;

(i) records in the memory the occupancy information and related timelines, based on the output of the real-time clock, so as to maintain a database of historic data of lighting usage representing the time-based operational modes associated with the lighting fixture;

(ii) predicts future lighting requirements based at least in part on the database of historic data of lighting usage; and

(iii) determines at least one adjustment to the variable occupancy-based lighting, based at least in part on the prediction of future lighting requirements, so as to provide at least one of a reduction energy consumption of the lighting fixture and an optimization of at least one process implemented using the PMM.

2. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein, upon implementation of the state machine, the digital light agent controller controls the plurality of LEDs based on the lighting parameters in the memory and the output of the real-time clock so as to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting based at least in part on a time-of-day.

3. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein, upon implementation of the state machine, the digital light agent controller controls the plurality of LEDs based on the lighting parameters in the memory and the database of historic data of lighting usage in the memory so as to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting.

4. The lighting fixture of claim 1, further comprising:

a network interface, operatively coupled to at least the power management module, to transmit to at least one external device, and/or receive from the at least one external device, at least one of;

the lighting parameters;

the occupancy information; and

the database of historic data of lighting usage.

5. The lighting fixture of claim 1, further comprising:

a meter circuit, operatively coupled to the digital light agent controller and the plurality of LEDs, to determine an energy usage by the plurality of LED light bars.

6. The lighting fixture of claim 5, wherein the meter circuit includes a hardware meter circuit to measure the energy usage.

7. The lighting fixture of claim 5, wherein the meter circuit performs a software measurement to determine the energy usage as a prediction based at least in part on operating states of the plurality of LEDs.

8. The lighting fixture of claim 5, wherein the digital light agent controller logs in the memory power measurements representing the energy usage determined by the meter circuit.

9. The lighting fixture of claim 8, further comprising:

a network interface operatively coupled to the power management module,

wherein the power management module controls the network interface so as to transmit to at least one external device the power measurements representing the energy usage determined by the meter circuit.

10. The lighting fixture of claim 9, wherein the network interface further transmits to the at least one external device, and/or receives from the at least one external source, at least one of:

the lighting parameters;

the occupancy information; and

the database of historic data of lighting usage.

11. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the database of historic data of lighting usage includes at least one indication of when the at least one sensor detected an occupant entering a space illuminated by the lighting fixture.

12. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the at least one adjustment determined by the PMM comprises a change in a lighting level of an infrequently used portion of an environment illuminated by the variable occupancy-based lighting.

13. A system, comprising:

the lighting fixture of claim 4; and

the at least one external device,

wherein the at least one external device is a second lighting fixture according to claim 4.

14. A system, comprising:

the lighting fixture of claim 10; and

the at least one external device,

wherein the at least one external device is a second lighting fixture according to claim 10.

15. A lighting method to provide variable occupancy-based lighting in an environment, the lighting method comprising:

A) sensing an occupancy in the environment to provide occupancy information;

B) storing in memory the occupancy information and related timelines, based on an output of a real-time clock, so as to maintain a database of historic data of lighting usage;

C) controlling a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting at a plurality of light levels, based at least in part on the occupancy information provided in A), the database of historic data of lighting usage maintained in B), and/or lighting parameters, wherein the lighting parameters include at least an active power output level of the plurality of light levels and an inactive power output level of the plurality of light levels;

D) predicting, with a processor, future lighting requirements based at least in part on the database of historic data of lighting usage maintained in B); and

E) determining, based on at least in part on the future lighting requirements predicted in D), at least one adjustment to the variable occupancy-based lighting to provide at least one of a reduction in energy consumption of the plurality of LEDs and an optimization of at least one process associated with providing the variable occupancy-based lighting.

16. The lighting method of claim 15, wherein C) comprises:

controlling the plurality of LEDs based on the lighting parameters and the output of the real-time clock so as to provide the variable occupancy-based lighting based at least in part on a time-of-day.

17. The lighting method of claim 15, further comprising:

F) determining an energy usage by the plurality of LEDs.

18. The lighting method of claim 17, further comprising:

G) logging in the memory power measurements representing the energy usage determined in E).

19. The lighting method of claim 18, further comprising:

H) transmitting to at least one external device, and/or receiving from the at least one external device, at least one of;

the lighting parameters;

the occupancy information;

the database of historic data of lighting usage; and

the power measurements representing the energy usage determined in G).

20. The lighting method of claim 15, wherein E) comprises:

determining a change in a lighting level of an infrequently used portion of the environment.

21. A lighting fixture to provide variable occupancy-based warehouse and industrial lighting, the lighting fixture comprising:

A) a housing including an integral sensor bay;

B) at least one occupancy sensor, disposed in the integral sensor bay, to provide occupancy information;

C) a plurality of rotatable light emitting diode (LED) light bars disposed in the housing to provide the variable occupancy-based warehouse and industrial lighting at a plurality of light levels and a plurality of foot-candle patterns, each LED light bar being arranged to rotate in the housing around a corresponding rotational axis to obtain a specific direction of light;

D) a real-time clock, disposed in the housing, to generate an output as a unit of time;

E) a power management module (PMM), disposed in the housing and operatively coupled to the at least one occupancy sensor, the plurality of rotatable LED light bars, and the real-time clock, to adjust the variable occupancy-based warehouse and industrial lighting based at least in part on the occupancy information provided by the at least one occupancy sensor, the power management module including;

E1) a memory to store lighting parameters, wherein the lighting parameters include at least an active power output level of the plurality of light levels and an inactive power output level of the plurality of light levels; and

E2) a digital light agent controller to predict future lighting requirements based at least in part on a database of historic data of lighting usage and to implement a state machine to;

E2a) record in the memory the occupancy information and related timelines, based on the output of the real-time clock, so as to maintain the database of historic data of lighting usage; and

E2b) analyze the occupancy information and/or the database of historic data of lighting usage and control the plurality of rotatable LED light bars based on the lighting parameters in the memory and the analyzed occupancy information and/or database of historic data of lighting usage so as to provide the variable occupancy-based warehouse and industrial lighting at the active power output level of the plurality of light levels or the inactive power output level of the plurality of light levels; and

F) a network interface, operatively coupled to at least the power management module, to transmit to at least one external device, and/or receive from the at least one external device, at least one of;

the lighting parameters;

the occupancy information; and

the database of historic data of lighting usage, and

wherein the PMM is configured to determine at least one adjustment to the variable occupancy-based lighting, based at least in part on the prediction of future lighting requirements, so as to provide at least one of a reduction in energy consumption of the lighting fixture and an optimization of at least one process implemented using the PMM.

22. The lighting fixture of claim 21, further comprising:

a meter circuit, operatively coupled to the digital light agent controller and the plurality of LED light bars, to determine an energy usage by the plurality of LED light bars,

wherein;

the digital light agent controller logs in the memory power measurements representing the energy usage determined by the meter circuit; and

the power management module controls the network interface so as to transmit to at least one external device the power measurements representing the energy usage determined by the meter circuit.