Wireless visualization interface for autonomous ground vehicle signal coverage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9519880-B1
Application number	US-201615008847-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 28, 2016
Priority date	Sep 25, 2014
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

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 at least one of the mobile drive unit or at least one of the plurality of access points, the data including at least roam times associated with network connectivity between the mobile drive unit and the 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 the at least one of the plurality of access points, the connectivity improvement information comprising 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.

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 identifier associated with 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 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, the trend information identifying trends with respect to at least one of 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 identifier associated with the mobile drive unit, within a specified time period.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, by a computer system, from at least one of an autonomous vehicle or at least one access point of a plurality of access points, network traffic information, the network traffic information including information related to network connectivity between the autonomous vehicle and the at least one access point of the 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 that corresponds to the first inventory management system,
the network traffic information including at least one of (1) roam time between the at least one access point and another access point or (2) timeouts that occur when the autonomous vehicle switches from the at least one access point to the another 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 plurality of access points and the first configuration of the first number of the plurality of access points and a second number of the autonomous vehicles and the second configuration of the second number of the autonomous vehicles 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 at least one of an autonomous vehicle or at least one access point of a plurality of access points, network traffic information, the network traffic information indicating network connectivity between the autonomous vehicle and the at least one access point of the 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
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 at least one of (1) turn on or off the at least one ac

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Cohn Jonathan

Classifications

• G05D1/0297

  by controlling means in a control room · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06Q10/08 Primary

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• H04W16/20

  for indoor coverage or short range network deployment · CPC title

• H04L67/12

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