Sensor-based communications network for remote and underground locations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022014590-A1
Application number	US-202016924267-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 9, 2020
Priority date	Jul 9, 2020
Publication date	Jan 13, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Aspects of the invention include using a controller to control a transceiver to transmit a sensor query signal to a first sensor at a first location of one or more locations having one or more sensors, wherein the sensor query signal energizes a first power supply for the first sensor, wherein energizing the power supply causes the first sensor to perform a sensor reading at the first location and transmit to the transceiver an encoded response signal representing the sensor reading, and analyzing, using the controller, the encoded response signal to determine the sensor reading at the first location.

First claim

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
using a controller to control a transceiver to transmit a sensor query signal to a first sensor at a first location of one or more locations having one or more sensors, wherein the sensor query signal energizes a first power supply for the first sensor; wherein energizing the power supply causes the first sensor to perform a sensor reading at the first location and transmit to the transceiver an encoded response signal representing the sensor reading, wherein the encoded response signal comprises a first response frequency; and analyzing, using the controller, the encoded response signal to determine the sensor reading at the first location and an identity of the first sensor, wherein the identity of the first sensor is determined based on the first response frequency being within a first bandwidth.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with a modulated length of time between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein determining the sensor reading at the first location comprises:
determining a set of time lengths between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; determining the sensor reading based on mapping each time length in the set of time lengths to a corresponding value.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with a modulated frequency for each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein determining the sensor reading at the first location comprises:
determining a set of frequencies comprising frequencies for each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; and determining the sensor reading based on mapping each frequency in the set of frequencies to a corresponding value.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with:
a modulated length of time between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; and a modulated frequency for each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor query signal comprises a radio frequency (RF) signal having a frequency of about 10 megaHertz (MHz) to 1 gigaHertz (GHz).

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver comprises one or more radio towers located above or below ground, and
wherein, the one or more radio towers are configured to transmit the sensor query signal to the one or more sensors simultaneously.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein:
a first radio tower in the one or more radio towers comprises a directional dish; and transmitting the sensor query signal to the first sensor at the first location comprises operating the directional dish to face the first location.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving the encoded response signal from the first sensor; and determining the direction of encoded response signal by adjusting a direction of the directional dish, wherein a signal propagation from the one or more towers and a signal time and strength of the encoded response signal are used to localize a three dimensional position of the first sensor.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor is addressed at a first frequency that is encoded for the first sensor; and
wherein the encoded response signal comprises the first frequency.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver comprises a mobile drone.

13 . A system comprising:
one or more processors for executing the computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions controlling the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
operating a transceiver to transmit a sensor query signal to a first sensor at a first location of one or more locations having one or more sensors, wherein the sensor query signal energizes a first power supply for the first sensor;
wherein energizing the power supply causes the first sensor to perform a sensor reading at the first location and transmit an encoded response signal representing the sensor reading, wherein the encoded response signal comprises a first response frequency; and
analyzing the encoded response signal to determine the sensor reading at the first location and an identity of the first sensor, wherein the identity of the first sensor is determined based on the first response frequency being within a first bandwidth.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with a modulated length of time between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses.

15 . The system of claim 14 , further comprises:
determining a sensor location of the first sensor based on the orientation of a direction and signal angle of the encoded response signal.

16 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with a modulated frequency for each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein determining the sensor reading at the first location comprises:
determining a set of frequencies comprising frequencies for each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; and determining the sensor reading based on mapping each frequency in the set of frequencies to a corresponding value.

18 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
controlling a transceiver to transmit a sensor query signal to a first sensor at a first location of one or more locations having one or more sensors, wherein the sensor query signal energizes a first power supply for the first sensor; wherein energizing the power supply causes the first sensor to perform a sensor reading at the first location and transmit an encoded response signal to the transceiver representing the sensor reading, wherein the encoded response signal comprises a first response frequency; and analyzing the encoded response signal to determine the sensor reading at the first location and an identity of the first sensor, wherein the identity of the first sensor is determined based on the first response frequency being within a first bandwidth.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading comprises a set of signal pulses having a first length with a modulated length of time between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; and
wherein determining the sensor reading at the first location comprises:
determining a set of time lengths between each signal pulse in the set of signal pulses; and
determining the sensor reading based on mapping each time length in the set of time lengths to a corresponding value.

20 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the encoded response signal representing the sensor reading compr

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Elmegreen Bruce Gordon
• Klein Levente
• Zafar Sufi

Classifications

• H04L67/52

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L27/10

  Frequency-modulated carrier systems, i.e. using frequency-shift keying (H04L27/32 takes precedence) · CPC title