Wireless visualization interface for autonomous ground vehicle signal coverage

• US 9,260,244 B1
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cohn, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US14/497,110
• Time in Patent Office: 509 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/137 with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41895 using automatic guided vehicles [AGV] control of position or course of AGV's G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/00 Network traffic management; Network resource management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A system for analyzing the network traffic health of an inventory management system that includes an autonomous vehicle and a plurality of access points. The autonomous vehicle interacts with access points in an inventory management system, and network traffic information related to network connectivity between the autonomous vehicle and the access points is obtained. The autonomous vehicle or the access points transmit(s) the network traffic information to a computer system that can generate a graphical user interface that represents the network traffic information for the inventory management system. The network traffic information can include a variety of information about the interactions between autonomous vehicles and access points, such as roam time of the autonomous vehicles between access points as the autonomous vehicles navigate within the inventory management system.

Claims

1. An inventory management system, comprising:

a plurality of access points situated in a materials handling facility;

a mobile drive unit for moving inventory within the inventory management system, and for receiving and transmitting data from and to the plurality of access points;

a computer system for;

receiving the data from the mobile drive unit, the data including at least roam times associated with network connectivity between the mobile drive unit and at least one of the plurality of access points;

generating connectivity improvement information based at least in part on the data; and

providing the connectivity improvement information to at least one of;

the at least one of the plurality of access points or the mobile drive unit, the connectivity improvement information comprising at least one of (1) instructions for the at least one of the plurality of access points to change a first configuration of the at least one of the plurality of access points or (2) instructions for the mobile drive unit to alter a second configuration of the mobile drive unit.

2. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the data includes at least one of signal strength indicators associated with an access point, timeouts that occur when the mobile drive unit switches from the at least one access point to another access point of the plurality of access points, beacons from the at least one access point, bitrates from the at least one access point, coordinates of the mobile drive unit, a timestamp, or an ID of the mobile drive unit.

3. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further configured for providing a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user, the GUI graphically representing information corresponding to the data received by the computer system, wherein the data is stored in a database that is in communication with the GUI.

4. The inventory management system of claim 3, wherein the GUI includes the connectivity improvement information and is configured to receive input from the user to implement the connectivity improvement information to instruct the mobile drive unit or the at least one of the plurality of access points.

5. The inventory management system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further configured for generating trend information based at least in part on the data, wherein generating the connectivity improvement information includes using the trend information.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, from an autonomous vehicle, network traffic information, the network traffic information including information related to network connectivity between the autonomous vehicle and at least one access point of a plurality of access points in a first inventory management system;

generating, by the computer system, a graphical user interface displaying the network traffic information on a map of the first inventory management system,

the network traffic information including at least one of roam time between the at least one access point and another access point, signal strength indicators associated with the at least one access point, timeouts that occur when the autonomous vehicle switches from the at least one access point to another access point of the plurality of access points, beacons from the at least one access point, or bitrates from the at least one access point of the plurality of access points; and

automatically providing, by the computer system, instructions to alter at least one of a first configuration of the at least one access point or a second configuration of the autonomous vehicle based on the network traffic information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing the graphical user interface to a user;

receiving input from the user interacting with the graphical user interface;

updating the graphical user interface based at least in part on the received input; and

providing for presentation the updated graphical user interface to the user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein receiving the input from the user includes a selection to filter the network traffic information included in the graphical user interface, wherein the selection includes at least one of a date, a time, a particular access point of the plurality of access points, a particular autonomous vehicle, a length of roam time between access points, beacon information of the access points, a particular map of the first inventory management system, or a traffic pattern of the particular autonomous vehicle.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating connectivity improvement information based at least in part on the network traffic information,

specifying a threshold for a portion of the information included in the network traffic information based on the user utilizing the graphical user interface, wherein automatically providing, by the computer system, the instructions to alter the at least one of the first configuration or the second configuration is based at least in part on the threshold and the connectivity improvement information.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising analyzing the network traffic information to determine trend information, the trend information identifying inefficient behavior of the autonomous vehicle or the at least one access point of the plurality of access points in the first inventory management system based at least in part on the network traffic information.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising utilizing the trend information for providing instructions to a second inventory management system, the instructions indicating a first number of the autonomous vehicles and the first configuration of the first number of the autonomous vehicles and a second number of the plurality of access points and the second configuration of the second number of the plurality of access points for the second inventory management system to implement in an initial configuration.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising generating connectivity improvement information based at least in part on the trend information, the instructions to alter the at least one of the first configuration or the second configuration further being based on the connectivity improvement information.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from an autonomous vehicle, network traffic information, the network traffic information indicating network connectivity between the autonomous vehicle and at least one access point of a plurality of access points in an inventory management system;

generating a graphical user interface based at least in part on the network traffic information;

providing the graphical user interface for presentation to a user; and

receiving input from the user interacting with the graphical user interface, the input including instructions to filter the network traffic information provided via the graphical user interface;

updating the graphical user interface based at least in part on the received input; and

providing the updated graphical user interface for presentation to the user.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to perform operations comprising generating connectivity improvement information based at least in part on the network traffic information, wherein the connectivity improvement information includes at least first instructions to turn on or off the at least one access point, adjust a signal strength of the at least one access point, rearrange the at least one access point in the inventory management system, or adjust a number of autonomous vehicles configured to interact with the at least one access point.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the connectivity improvement information includes at least second instructions to update traffic patterns of the autonomous vehicle.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

providing instructions to the at least one access point of the plurality of access points to prioritize access of a particular autonomous vehicle over other autonomous vehicles in the inventory management system, the instructions based at least in part on connectivity improvement information generated from the network traffic information.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from the user, selection of a first access point and a second access point from the plurality of access points via the graphical user interface; and

updating the graphical user interface to display roam time and position of the autonomous vehicle between the first access point and the second access point, the roam time indicating an amount of time between the autonomous vehicle disconnecting from the first access point and connecting to the second access point.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from the user, selection of a first access point and an area of a map associated with the inventory management system via the graphical user interface; and

updating the graphical user interface to display roam time and position of the autonomous vehicle between the first access point and any other access point of the plurality of access points of the inventory management system, the roam time indicating an amount of time between the autonomous vehicle disconnecting from the first access point and connecting to any other access point of the plurality of access points.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the receiving, from the autonomous vehicle, of the network traffic information occurs at least one of periodically, randomly, upon request, upon a trigger event, or in real time.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to perform operations comprising instructing the autonomous vehicle to transmit network traffic information based at least in part on a user request received from the user through the graphical user interface.