RU2702964C1 - Goods presence/absence on shelf detection system - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: computer engineering.SUBSTANCE: invention relates to computer engineering. System comprises: processing unit, sensitive coating filled with polymer material with air cavities, equipped with meters installed inside polymer material and configured to record weight, pressure, consisting of sectors, each sector having a coordinate corresponding to the meter and connected to sensors installed in the processing unit, wherein each sensor is connected to a common physical layer bus with a wireless communication modem connected to the hub via wireless communication or wire communication, wherein said sensors additionally have a temperature sensor and a resistance sensor of the monitoring circuit.EFFECT: efficient tracking of goods.4 cl, 4 dwg

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to systems for automated accounting, control and processing of data used in the field of trade, in particular, to systems for determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf with independent sensors and information exchange, and is intended for the automatic collection, processing and transmission of information about the status of shelves and shelving at points of sale.

State of the art

Currently, in order to most effectively place goods at points of sale, increase sales, increase customer activity and stimulate the work of sellers, many devices are used, including those implemented in conjunction with the accounting and control systems for sold / remaining goods.

The prior art devices are known that include various methods for determining the amount of sold and / or remaining goods on the shelves, however, none of them fully corresponds to the claimed technical solution.

So, for example, you can select the closest analogue of the claimed technical solution described in patent RU168336, published. 01/30/2017. This analogue includes a system of optical sensors and a controller connected to the aforementioned sensors via a radio channel. The sensors record the state of presence / absence of the control object inside the storage of goods by measuring the reflected light from it.

A disadvantage of the known device is that it is intended for installation in a storage device of goods and is not suitable for flat shelves containing free-standing goods. The second disadvantage of the device is the inability to assess the fullness of the shelf or drive, because the reflected light beam indicates only the fact of the presence of goods in the drive. The state of the drive can vary between “product is” and “product is not”, which does not allow us to assess intermediate conditions and allows us to assess the speed of disposal of goods. Also, the device does not allow to estimate the weight of the remaining goods.

Also known is the invention described in patent RU2630749, published. 09/12/2017.

The technical result of this solution is the effective tracking of goods on trading stands in real time. A system for tracking goods on shelves for installation on a trading stand, containing inventory areas that represent one or more product units in one or more of the following layouts: one or more product units are located inside the container in a configuration that includes one or more layers in depth , one or more product units are freely located in the container, or each of one or more product units is hung on a hook; one or more product sensors, each of which is functionally associated with one or more inventory zones and which convert the detected quantity of one or more product units into a corresponding analog electromagnetic signal; an installation structure that attaches one or more product sensors to the trading stand with respect to one or more product units so that one or more product sensors detect the number of one or more product units; a processor for processing electromagnetic signals associated with one or more product sensors, which periodically samples output from one or more product sensors, and also converts the analog signal into a digital signal; an auto-calibration system associated with a processor for processing electromagnetic signals that detects the background variability of an analog electromagnetic signal and, based on this, sets an activity threshold for each one or more product sensors, the activity threshold being a configurable background variability factor, and the activity threshold represents the sensitivity of the associated product sensor ; and a detection system related to the manipulation of the event, which determines the occurrence of a stock-related event in one or more inventory zones, when the variability of the corresponding analog signal exceeds the activity threshold, the detection system related to the manipulation of the event suspends auto-calibration during the stock-related event, and the detection system associated with the manipulation of the event identifies one or more sensors of the products involved in the supply of a signal relating to bound to inventory events before completion events associated with inventory and detection system associated with the manipulation of the event determines the end associated with inventory events when volatility of each respective analog electromagnetic signal falls below a specified threshold of activity for each of the signals involved in the supply of product sensors.

In some embodiments, the product sensors convert the quantity of products in the retail carton into a proportional electromagnetic property. Exemplary product sensors, which can be sold separately or in various combinations, include a sensor based on a pressure sensitive resistor (PDR) located under a cardboard container for retail products; an ultrasound probe located above the top of a cardboard box for retail products; a capacitive sensor located under the cardboard packaging for retail products; optical sensor; a charge-coupled device (CCD) -based camera and an image analysis unit or any other type of sensor, currently known or developed in the future, that can convert the number of products in retail cartons to a proportional electromagnetic property or digital signal. These sensors can be used individually or in groups, or in combination with each other, as well as with other sensors known in the art.

In FIG. 24 shows an example of an installation system with a set of sensor circuits having a hexagonal configuration that can be located on a flexible substrate. Sensor circuits may have a honeycomb configuration located on a shelf in order to cover the entire shelf area and configured as multiple inventory zones.

In FIG. 25 shows an example of an installation system with a set of sensor circuits having a rectangular configuration that can be located on a flexible substrate. Sensor circuits may have a rectangular configuration located on a shelf in order to cover the entire area of the shelf and configured in the form of several inventory zones.

The disadvantage of this invention is the inability to control the state of the surface of the coating. Due to the nature of the sensors, the coating is made of flexible material and, with a significant number of uses, wears out, becomes covered with “badasses” and loses its consumer appearance. The appearance and condition of the trade equipment is an important quality in the competition. Also, a worn-out sensitive coating distorts the readings of various sensors / meters, leading to an increase in their error. With a significant number of stores and commercial equipment, the issue of wear control should be addressed automatically and centrally. The proposed invention, the solution solves this issue through the use of a control circuit integrity.

The second disadvantage of this invention is the degradation of the substrate with sensors during prolonged use. With a long stay of the goods in one place, the substrate is pressed through. The sold substrate worsens the presentation of the trading equipment and distorts the readings of the sensors. The presented technical solution solves this problem through the use, in production technology, of foams, for example, cellular plastic with a closed nature of the cavities. Cavities filled with air restore the state of the substrate due to air pressure inside the cavity.

The third disadvantage of this invention is the error in measuring weight, weight gradient and the fact of the presence of cargo when used in freezers and refrigerators. When placing the above invention inside an environment with a temperature below air temperature, a constant error occurs in the trading floor. A constant error occurs due to an increase in the rigidity of the substrate and changes in the properties of sensors from temperature changes. In the present invention, the problem is solved by transmitting the ambient temperature to a central concentrator to adjust the measurement results.

Disclosure of invention

The objective of the claimed invention is to develop the design of a system for determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf, which will eliminate the disadvantages of the prior art, improve the design and functionality of analogues, that is, provide automatic collection, processing and transmission of information about the condition of sensitive surfaces, the availability of goods on them and their weight located at points of sale in real time (remotely).

Also, the proposed solution is aimed at transmitting the temperature of the medium to adjust the measurements and reduce the measurement error. In the present invention, the degradation of the filler substrate with meters due to the use of cellular plastics is taken into account.

The technical results of the claimed inventions are:

- improvement and expansion of the functionality of accounting systems and control of the quantity of placed and / or sold goods, recording operations with the goods in real time (remotely).

- providing automatic collection, processing and transmission of information about the state of pressure-sensitive coatings on shelves located at points of sale in real time (remotely);

- simplification of installation / disassembly of the system.

Achieving the claimed technical result is ensured by the fact that in the proposed system, the central concentrator and the sensitive coating processing unit are connected to each other by wireless communication, in particular, a radio channel with the ability to transmit information about the availability of goods, which greatly simplifies the installation of the device. In addition, the claimed system due to its versatility and small dimensions is suitable for all types of racks, shelves, trays and other commercial equipment including, but not limited to refrigeration units located in trading floors.

The system for determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf according to the claimed invention includes a processing unit, a sensitive coating filled with polymer material with air cavities, equipped with meters installed inside the polymer material and configured to record weight, pressure, consisting of sectors. Moreover, each sector has a coordinate corresponding to the meter and is connected with sensors installed in the processing unit through a common wire bus, and with the ability to determine the coordinates of the point of application of weight, pressure from the goods, and a central hub configured to receive, record signals from sensors and comparing them, wherein each sensor is connected to a common physical layer bus with a wireless communication modem connected to the hub via wireless or wireline communication.

According to an embodiment of the invention, said meters are tensoresistive or piezoelectric.

To these sensors of the system, an additional temperature sensor and a resistance sensor of the control loop can be installed.

The sensitive coating of the system may additionally contain a wire loop installed with the possibility of issuing a disturbance about the damage to the coating and connected with the resistance sensor of the control loop.

Also, the sensitive coating may further comprise a temperature meter associated with the temperature sensor.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In FIG. 1 presents a general diagram of a system for determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf.

In FIG. Figure 2 shows the layout of sensitive coatings by sector on a shelf.

In FIG. 3 is a diagram of a processing unit.

In FIG. 4 shows an example of an arrangement of elements inside a sensitive coating in a section.

The implementation of the invention

The solution to the above problem and the achievement of the claimed technical result is realized due to the invention, which is generally disclosed in the drawings.

The inventive system consists of a pressure-sensitive coating 1, a processing unit / controller 3, a central hub 4 (see Fig. 1). The principle of operation of the invention is based on recording the weight of the payload / product 2 on the controller 3 and then transferring the weight of the payload and coordinates to the central hub 4 for the subsequent assessment of the amount of free space employment. For this, the shelf / rack is coated with a weight-sensitive coating 1. Coating 1 is a polymer film, plate or porous structure with a closed porosity character, inside of which there are miniature pressure gauges 17.

The communication of the controller 3 with the hub 4 is carried out via a wireless connection 5 or a wired connection 6 (see Fig. 1). The connection method depends on the features of the room and the problem to be solved.

Pressure meters 17 may be tensoresistive, piezoelectric or any other, sensitive to weight.

The covering 1 of the shelf or rack (see Fig. 2) consists of sectors 7, the size of each of the sectors 7 and its coordinate, in relation to the coating 1, are known in advance or are specified at the time of production. Each sector 7 corresponds to a numerical coordinate (A..N; A..N), where the first letter is responsible for the serial number of the sector from the width of the cover from A to a certain number N, while the second along the length of the cover, also from A to a certain number N. Each sensitive sector 7 has its own meter 17, which is located inside the sensitive coating 1. The number of sectors 7 is equal to the number of corresponding meters 17 and each such sector 7, just like meter 17, has its own number XY, where X, Y is located in the pre-known limits between A and N, ootvetstvenno. Since each sensitive sector 7, just like its corresponding meter 17, has a coordinate and its own XY number, to measure the weight of the goods on the sensitive coating 1 and the coordinates of this product, each meter 17 has a connection with the corresponding sensor 9 via a common wire rail 8.

In FIG. 3 shows the processing unit / controller 3. The common bus 8 is connected to the processing unit 3. From each sensitive sector 7 and the corresponding meter 17, the bus 8 is connected to the sensors 9. The sensor 9, as an example, can be produced by ZETLAB. Each sensor 9 corresponds to a sensitive sector 7, the indicators of which are recorded. The sensor 9, measuring the properties of the meter 17, determines the level of weight. Thus, the weight per sensitive sector 7 of the corresponding meter 17 is determined. To monitor the state of the coating surface 1 and to measure the temperature, a temperature sensor 14 and a resistance sensor of the control loop 15 are additionally installed to the sensors 9.

Each sensor 9 is connected to a common bus 10 of the physical layer (for example, RS-485) with a wireless modem 11.

The modem 11 and the hub 4 are connected wirelessly 5 via the LPWAN protocol (or the like gsm, wi-fi and others), for example, using STRIZh devices (https://strij.tech/).

In FIG. 4 shows an example of the arrangement of elements inside the sensitive coating 1 in the context, without regard to scale. The sensitive coating 1 is filled with a polymeric material with air cavities 13 to compensate for indentations from the prolonged presence of goods on this coating 1. Inside the filler are meters 17, which record the weight, as well as temperature meters 16 (see Fig. 4).

The most susceptible to wear layer of the coating is provided with a thin wire circuit 12. Circuit 12 is a closed wire line connected via a common bus to the resistance sensor of the control circuit 15. Circuit 12, if damaged, will increase resistance, since the closed wire line will be broken. The resistance measurement sensor 15 will register this change and create an event that will be routed to the central hub 4 via the bus 10 and then through the modem 11.

The system according to the invention can produce both a weight, a weight gradient, in relation to the coordinates of the shelf, and a signal in the form of a binary response of the form "there is goods / no goods". These capabilities are obtained by interpreting the signals from the weight / pressure sensors 9, which, in turn, according to the principle of operation, give a digital value of the weight of the product, which is located above the meter 17 in the corresponding sensitive sector 7, the coordinate of which is known in advance. If there is no product above meter 17, then this will correspond to a weight value of 0, which means the absence of the product. The central hub 4 contains aggregated information about all the shelves and the availability of free space on them.

The principle of the system is as follows. The sensitive coating 1 is spread directly on the shelves under the goods in the trading floor 2. The goods 2 are mounted on the coating 1. Each meter 17 corresponding to the sensitive sector 7 acquires a static state and its indicator is taken by the sensor 9 via the common bus 8. Next, the signal from the sensor is already digitized 9 via bus 10, it goes to the modem 11. After that, the signal goes to the central hub 4, where the state of a specific sensitive coating 1 and sensitive sector 7 is recorded on it. If the product 2 is raised on a specific sensitive sector 7, then the sensor 9 corresponding to the sector will detect the disturbance and transmit the digitized signal via modem 11 to the central hub 4. In the hub 4 two states of specific sensitive sectors 7 are compared, from which it can be concluded that goods were removed from a shelf in a particular place. The digitized signal contains the weight and information about the weight of the goods on the shelves, which is available for analysis at the central hub 4.

Periodically, the sensors 9 take the readings of the meters 17 of the corresponding sensitive sectors 7 immediately of the entire sensitive coating 1 and send them via modem 11 to the central hub 4. For each sensitive sector 7, a recorded digital weight value exists for a specific moment in time and a gradient weight distribution is constructed from these values goods all over sensitive coverage 1.

In case of damage to the top layer of the sensitive coating 1, damage to the control circuit 12 occurs (see Fig. 4). The circuit 12 is connected with a resistance meter 15. For example, when the control circuit 12 is made of copper wire, the circuit resistance increases significantly, which indicates a broken circuit. The sensor 15 will transmit the digitized disturbance to the modem 11 and then the disturbance goes to the hub 4, where an event occurs informing about the need to replace the sensitive coating 1.

At a given point in time, the temperature meter 16 reads the temperature of the sensitive coating 1 via bus 8 to the sensor 14. Next, the sensor 14 in digitized form transmits data via the bus 10 to the modem 11. The modem 11 transmits a signal for processing to the central concentrator 4. V concentrator 4, depending on the temperature of the sensitive surface, changes are made to the results of measuring weight, the gradient of weight, or the results of determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf.

Claims (4)

1. A system for determining the presence / absence of goods on a shelf, including a processing unit 3, a sensitive coating 1, filled with a polymer material with air cavities 13, equipped with meters 17 installed inside the polymer material and configured to record weight, pressure, consisting of sectors 7, in this case, each sector 7 has a coordinate corresponding to the meter 17 and is connected to the sensors 9 installed in the processing unit 3 through a common wire bus 8, and with the possibility of determining the coordinates of the application point I weight, pressure from the goods, and a central hub 4, configured to receive, record signals from sensors 9 and compare them, with each sensor 9 connected to a common physical layer 10 bus with a wireless modem 11 connected to the hub 4 wirelessly connection 5 or wire connection 6, characterized in that to these sensors 9 are additionally installed a temperature sensor 14 and a resistance sensor of the control loop 15. 2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the said meters 17 are tensoresistive or piezoelectric. 3. The system according to any one of paragraphs. 1 and 2, characterized in that the sensitive coating 1 further comprises a wire loop 12, installed with the possibility of issuing disturbances about damage to the coating 1 and connected with the resistance sensor of the control loop 15. 4. The system according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, characterized in that the sensitive coating 1 further comprises a temperature meter 16 associated with the temperature sensor 14.

Images