Abl IP Holding LLC

Xiangrong Li

Mitri J Abou-Rizk

Emanuel Paul Malandrakis

Sajin George

Jesse Grant

Kelby Edward Green

Yenpao Albert Lu

Yenpao Lu

Disclosed are examples of a method, system and asset tag that enables general, coarse and fine estimates of a location of the asset tag. The asset tag receives a signal transmitted from radio frequency (RF)-enabled nodes within a space. Each respective received signal includes a unique node identifier of the respective RF node that transmitted the respective received radio signal. Each RF node has a physical node location in the space that is associated with the unique node identifier. The tag measures the received signal strength of each respective received signal that is associated with the node identifier of the RF node that transmitted the respective received signal. The strongest measured received signal strengths are selected, and a tuple containing the node identifiers for the selected strongest signal strengths is forwarded for estimating a location of the asset tag by a computing device.

More accurate asset tag locating of radio frequency devices

Examples of a system and a method for asset tracking are provided. The system includes wireless communication nodes in a space that receive a basic message including an asset tracking tag identifier and a basic message sequence number transmitted by an asset tracking tag. The wireless communication nodes measure a received basic message signal attribute, and transmit a node asset message including the asset tracking tag identifier, the basic message sequence number, a node identifier, and the measured signal attribute of the received basic message to an edge gateway. The edge gateway may receive the transmitted node asset message transmitted by each of some number of the wireless communication nodes and rank respective node identifiers extracted from the received node asset messages based the measured signal attribute. The edge gateway forwards an aggregated message to a fog gateway for obtaining an estimate of the location of the asset tracking tag.

Asset tag tracking system and network architecture

A system includes a plurality of lighting devices connected in a network to communicate in a service area, and a smart tag configured to communicate with one or more of the lighting devices. Each respective lighting device is configured to transmit a radio frequency signal including a device identifier of the respective lighting device. In response to expiration of a time period or an occurrence of an event, the smart tag is configured to transition from a low power consumption sleep mode to an awake mode. During the awake mode, the smart tag is configured to provide information that enables a processor or other computing device to determine a position of the smart tag or any asset associated with the smart tag in the service area. Upon transmission of the information, the smart tag is transitioned from the awake mode back to the low power consumption sleep mode.

Asset tracking using active wireless tags that report via a local network of connected beacons

Radio frequency-enabled nodes, in an example asset tracking system, receive a basic message including an asset tracking tag identifier from an asset tag. The nodes measure a signal attribute of the received message; and each receiving node transmits a node asset message including the asset tag identifier, a respective node identifier, and the measured signal attribute. Edge gateways each receive one or more node asset messages transmitted by some number of the radio frequency-enabled nodes and rank respective node identifiers based on the measured signal attribute. Each edge gateway forwards an aggregated message to a fog gateway, which parses data from the aggregated messages to form a node identifier tuple identifying at least three nodes near the asset tag. Ordered identifiers from the tuple and known locations of the identified nearby nodes can then be processed to estimate of the location of the asset tag.

Network architecture, radio frequency based asset tracking and/or location estimation methods and systems

A tag is configured to provide information that enables a processor or other computing device to locate the tag and any asset associated with the tag in an area. The tag incorporates a motion sensor responsive to movements of the tag above a predetermined rate and a predetermined magnitude. In response to the movements above the predetermined rate and magnitude, the motion sensor generates a voltage exceeding a predetermined threshold. An energy-saving process exploits the tag's microcontroller's transitions between a 'sleep' state and an 'awake' state. While asleep, the microcontroller maintains a clock and data in memory, and monitors an input from the motion sensor. In response to voltages at the input over the predetermine threshold, the microcontroller receives signals from one or more nearby beacon nodes in a network operating in the area, process the signals and transmit information based on the processed signals, for a position determination.

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Brookline, MA, United States of America

Xiangrong Li