Indoor location system with energy consumption controlled mobile transceiver units

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11294358-B2
Application number	US-202016809627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 5, 2020
Priority date	Sep 5, 2017
Publication date	Apr 5, 2022
Grant date	Apr 5, 2022

Abstract

An indoor location system includes mobile transceiver units to support a manufacturing control of process courses in an industrial manufacturing of workpieces in a manufacturing plant. The indoor location system includes an analysis unit configured to determine a position of a mobile transceiver unit to be localized from runtimes of electromagnetic signals between transceiver units, and an energy consumption control unit configured to output a control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of at least one of the mobile transceiver units if participation of the at least one mobile transceiver unit in position determination operations is not required and to output a control signal for activating the localizing mode of the position signal module of the at least one of the mobile transceiver units from a deactivated state when participation of the at least one mobile transceiver unit in a position determination operation is required.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An indoor location system for supporting a manufacturing control of process courses in an industrial manufacturing of workpieces in a manufacturing plant in which a group of objects are each independently movable within the manufacturing plant, the indoor location system comprising:
a plurality of mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers including a position signal module configured to be operable in a localizing mode for determining a position of a selected mobile transceiver of the mobile transceivers, each of the mobile transceivers being spatially assignable to a corresponding object from the group of objects,
wherein the indoor location system is configured to:
determine the position of the selected mobile transceiver based at least on runtimes of electromagnetic signals between the mobile transceivers,
output a deactivation control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of at least one of the mobile transceivers when participation of the at least one mobile transceiver in position determination operations is not required, and
output an activation control signal for activating the localizing mode of the position signal module of the at least one of the mobile transceivers from a deactivated state when participation of the at least one of the mobile transceivers in a position determination operation is required, and

wherein the indoor location system is configured to:
access positions of the mobile transceivers and a digital site map of the manufacturing plant in which at least one deactivation zone is defined, and
output a control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a position signal module of one of the mobile transceivers for which a position transition from outside the at least one deactivation zone into the at least one deactivation zone is detected.

2. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein the position signal modules of the mobile transceivers are configured as part of a location system configured to operate in a range from 1 GHz to 200 GHz transmission and reception frequency, and
wherein at least one of the position signal modules is configured to perform at least one of:
receiving power from a power source of an associated mobile transceiver for operating the localizing mode, or
setting time delays between received signals and transmitted signals, and

wherein the at least one of the position signal modules includes at least one of:
a signal receiver, a signal transmitter, and an antenna system for receiving and radiating signals,
a signal processor configured to process the received signals and to cause signals to be emitted, or
the power source of the associated mobile transceiver.

3. The indoor location system of claim 1 , in which the indoor location system includes low-energy system transmitters,
wherein each of the mobile transceivers comprises a low-energy system receiver configured for a lower energy requirement than a signal receiver of the position signal module of the mobile transceiver, and
wherein the low-energy system transmitters and the low-energy system receivers are configured as part of a communication system based on low-energy system radio technology.

4. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein the indoor location system is configured to:
access a digital operational schedule of one of the mobile transceivers, at least one deactivation time window being stored in the digital operational schedule, and
output a control signal for deactivating a localizing mode of a positional signal module of the one of the mobile transceivers at a time of entering the at least one deactivation time window.

5. The indoor location system of claim 1 , in which the indoor location system includes a power demand detection module having at least one transmitter for transmitting switching signals,
wherein one of the mobile transceivers comprises a power consumption control module,
wherein the power demand detection module is configured to:
evaluate at least one of position information or status information of the mobile transceivers with respect to a required activity of the mobile transceivers during a current phase of a processing plan, and
output a switching signal to the power consumption control module to cause generation of a control signal for deactivation of a localizing mode of a positional signal module of the one of the mobile transceivers or generation of a control signal for activation of the localizing mode of the positional signal module of the one of the mobile transceivers.

6. The indoor location system of claim 5 , wherein each of the mobile transceivers comprises a respective receiver for receiving a corresponding switching signal, and
wherein the at least one transmitter and the respective receivers are configured as part of a communication system based on low-energy system radio technology.

7. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein one of the mobile transceivers includes a sensor module configured to generate a state signal when a state of the one of the mobile transceivers is detected, in which a position determination of the one of the mobile transceivers is either not required or required, and
wherein the indoor location system is configured to, upon reception of the state signal, output one of
a control signal for deactivation of a localizing mode of the one of the mobile transceivers when the state signal indicates that the position determination of the one of the mobile transceivers is not required, and
a control signal for activation of the localizing mode of the one of the mobile transceivers when the state signal indicates that the position determination of the one of the mobile transceivers is required.

8. The indoor location system of claim 7 , wherein the sensor module includes at least one of
an acceleration sensor,
an orientation sensor,
a magnetic sensor,
a light-sensitive sensor,
a temperature-sensitive sensor,
a sound wave-sensitive sensor,
a barometer sensor, or
a sensor for detecting electrical or electromagnetic signals.

9. The indoor location system of claim 7 , wherein the sensor module is configured to detect a spatially stationary idle state of the one of the mobile transceivers and to output the state signal after detection of the spatially stationary idle state, and
wherein the indoor location system is configured to output the control signal of deactivation after the reception of the state signal.

10. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the mobile transceivers includes at least one module from a group of modules consisting of:
a Global Positioning System (GPS) module,
a load cell module,
a temperature sensor module,
a humidity sensor module,
a brightness sensor module,
a vibration sensor module,
a Hall sensor module for magnetic field measurement for workpiece identification,
an eddy current measuring module for workpiece identification,
a vital function sensor module,
a near field communication module,
a light signal module,
a smoke detector module, and
a display module.

11. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the mobile transceivers includes at least one module from a group of modules, and
wherein the indoor location system is configured to output a control signal for deactivating or activating a module of the group of modules.

12. The indoor location system of claim 1 , wherein one of the mobile transceivers is spatially fixedly associated with a corresponding object of the group of objects assigned to the one of the mobile transceivers, and wherein at least some of the obj

Assignees

• Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen Gmbh Co Kg

Inventors

• Ottnad Jens
• Kiefer Manuel
• Weiss Korbinian
• Schwarz Benjamin

Classifications

• G05B2219/33192

  Radio link, wireless · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• Y02P70/10

  Greenhouse gas [GHG] capture, material saving, heat recovery or other energy efficient measures, e.g. motor control, characterised by manufacturing processes, e.g. for rolling metal or metal working · CPC title

• G05B2219/31328

  Objects report their location to directory service · CPC title

• G05B2219/34306

  Power down, energy saving · CPC title