CN116634533A

CN116634533A - Method for reducing power consumption of mobile phone by skipping UWB ranging rounds

Info

Publication number: CN116634533A
Application number: CN202310091948.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 埃里克·佩罗德
Original assignee: Qorvo US Inc
Current assignee: Qorvo US Inc
Priority date: 2022-02-18
Filing date: 2023-02-10
Publication date: 2023-08-22

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method of skipping UWB ranging passes to reduce power consumption of a mobile phone. A method performed by a first Ultra Wideband (UWB) equipped device for reducing UWB power consumption includes transmitting one or more UWB ranging signals to a second UWB equipped device in a plurality of ranging passes according to a first ranging time interval, and receiving one or more position measurements from the second UWB equipped device. The location measurement indicates the location of the second UWB-equipped device. The method comprises the following steps: the first ranging time interval is modified to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs.

Description

Method for reducing power consumption of mobile phone by skipping UWB ranging rounds

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices, and more particularly to methods for improving the efficiency of UWB-equipped devices.

Background

Ultra Wideband (UWB) is a radio technology that provides UWB-equipped devices with the ability to measure precise distances (e.g., ranging) between two devices. UWB technology is commonly used to guarantee critical wireless services (e.g., contactless payment, car access, home access, etc.), among other uses. For example, UWB sensors allow smartphones and other wireless devices to safely and accurately provide remote keyless entry for vehicles or homes.

To calculate the distance between UWB-equipped devices, some conventional UWB methods use single-sided two-way ranging (SS-TWR). Fig. 1 is a data flow diagram illustrating a conventional SS-TWR method of a UWB-equipped device. As shown, SS-TWR measures time of flight (TOF) calculations that take into account the time increment T between an initiation message and a response message at a ranging initiation device _{Round of} With time increment T at ranging responder for receiving initiation message and providing response message _{Reply to} . In particular, under SS-TWR, TOF can be calculated asThe distance between the two devices is then determined using the TOF.

Alternatively, other conventional UWB methods utilize double-sided two-way ranging (DS-TWR). Fig. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating a conventional DS-TWR method of a UWB-equipped device. The DS-TWR measures the time increment between initiation and reception of a message at both the initiating device and the responding device. In the example shown in FIG. 2, TOF can be calculated asIt should be noted that unlike SS-TWR, DS-TWR ranging is insensitive to clock offset between two devices.

The UWB-equipped device may also use the received UWB signal to measure the angle of arrival of the signal while determining the distance between the devices. This measured angle of arrival can then be used to calculate the height of the transmitting device relative to the receiving device.

As shown, UWB implementations employ SS-TWR or DS-TWR to measure distance and/or height differences between UWB equipped devices. However, to facilitate UWB use cases (e.g., remote car unlocking, etc.), UWB-equipped devices must continuously measure their distance from other UWB-equipped devices according to the ranging time interval. In the conventional method, this ranging time interval is a preset static interval.

Disclosure of Invention

One exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a Ultra Wideband (UWB) -equipped device with reduced UWB power consumption. The UWB-equipped device includes one or more UWB transmitters. The UWB-equipped device includes one or more UWB receivers. The UWB-equipped device includes processing circuitry. The processing circuit is configured to: causing the UWB-equipped device to transmit one or more UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device and receive one or more position measurements from the second UWB-equipped device in a plurality of ranging passes according to the first ranging time interval. The location measurement indicates the location of the second UWB-equipped device. The processing circuit is further configured to: causing the UWB-equipped device to modify the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs.

Another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a UWB-equipped device with reduced UWB power consumption. The UWB-equipped device is adapted to transmit one or more UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device and to receive one or more position measurements from the second UWB-equipped device in a plurality of ranging passes according to the first ranging time interval. The location measurement indicates the location of the second UWB-equipped device. The UWB-equipped device is adapted to cause the UWB-equipped device to modify the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs.

Another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a method performed by a first UWB-equipped device for reducing UWB power consumption. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting one or more UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device and receiving one or more position measurements from the second UWB-equipped device in a plurality of ranging passes according to the first ranging time interval. The location measurement indicates the location of the second UWB-equipped device. The method comprises the following steps: the first ranging time interval is modified to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs.

In another aspect, any of the foregoing aspects, and/or the various individual aspects and features as described herein, may be combined singly or together to obtain additional advantages. Any of the various features and elements disclosed herein may be combined with one or more other disclosed features and elements unless indicated to the contrary herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize the scope of the present disclosure and appreciate additional aspects thereof upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the associated drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate several aspects of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram illustrating a conventional single-sided two-way ranging (SS-TWR) method for Ultra Wideband (UWB) equipped devices;

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating a conventional double-sided (DS) -TWR method for UWB equipped devices;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a suitable implementation example data manager, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a data flow diagram for communicating between a first UWB-equipped device and a second UWB-equipped device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for predicting the final location of a UWB equipped device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating a UWB equipped device resuming an initial ranging time interval after a device movement is determined to exceed a threshold or a device angle has changed beyond a threshold, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a data flow diagram illustrating communications between a controller host and a UWB equipped controller device utilizing ranging round-robin algorithms, according to one embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a data flow diagram illustrating communications between a controller host and a UWB equipped controller device utilizing ranging round-robin algorithms, according to another embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a Kalman filter prediction technique for determining a final position or angle of a UWB equipped device, according to some embodiments of the disclosure; and

fig. 10 is a data flow diagram illustrating communication between a controller host utilizing a ranging round-robin algorithm and a UWB-equipped controller device predicting a final position of the UWB-equipped response device, according to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The embodiments set forth below represent the information necessary to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood that when an element such as a layer, region or substrate is referred to as being "on" or "extending" another element, it can be directly on or extend directly onto the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on" or "directly extending onto" another element, there are no intervening elements present. Also, it will be understood that when an element such as a layer, region or substrate is referred to as being "over" or "extending over" another element, it can extend directly over the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on" or extending "directly over" another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly coupled" to another element, there are no intervening elements present.

Relative terms, such as "below" or "above" or "upper" or "lower" or "horizontal" or "vertical" may be used herein to describe one element, layer or region's relationship to another element, layer or region as illustrated. It should be understood that these terms and those discussed above are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Embodiments are described herein with reference to schematic illustrations of embodiments of the disclosure. As such, the actual dimensions of the layers and elements may vary, and are expected to vary from the illustrated shapes due to, for example, manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances. For example, a region illustrated or described as square or rectangular may have rounded or curved features, and a region shown as a straight line may have some irregularities. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the precise shape of a region of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the size of structures or regions may be exaggerated relative to other structures or regions for illustrative purposes, and thus structures or regions are provided to illustrate the general structures of the present invention and may or may not be drawn to scale. Common elements between the drawings may be shown with common element numbers herein and will not be described later.

Conventional Ultra Wideband (UWB) methods may be used to determine the distance and/or altitude between UWB-equipped devices. It should be noted that a "UWB-equipped device" may be any device having UWB capabilities. More specifically, a UWB-equipped device may describe a UWB sensor capable of transmitting and receiving UWB signals, or may describe a device with a passive UWB sensor or a stand-alone passive UWB sensor capable of passively reflecting any broadcast UWB sensor.

As previously described, the conventional UWB method instructs a UWB-equipped device to continuously measure its distance from other UWB-equipped devices according to a static preset ranging time interval. However, in aggregate, UWB ranging time intervals may consume significant amounts of power and/or other resources (e.g., computing cycles, etc.). Furthermore, in many cases, a static ranging time interval is not necessary. For example, a user may use a UWB-equipped smartphone to remotely unlock a UWB-equipped vehicle. The vehicle is parked in the home of the user, and the user's smartphone is located in the home. In this scenario, a UWB-equipped vehicle will detect the smartphone and initiate a ranging procedure with the smartphone. Since the smart phone and the vehicle are not moving, the vehicle will endlessly transmit the UWB ranging procedure at preset static ranging time intervals, thus unnecessarily consuming a lot of power and other resources. Furthermore, any processor(s) of the UWB-equipped device that process ranging results may consume a significant amount of power consumption based on the UWBS power. For example, the power consumption penalty for application processor wakeup for ranging processing may be significant in conventional processors.

Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure propose a method for reducing power consumption in UWB-equipped devices. Specifically, a ranging round skip function is proposed, which can be invoked when a UWB-equipped device transmits a measurement notification to a host (e.g., via a UWB sensor or the like).

Aspects of the present embodiments provide a number of technical effects and benefits. Among other exemplary technical effects and benefits, the proposed embodiments significantly reduce the number of unnecessary ranging passes in UWB-equipped devices, thus significantly reducing power consumption and increasing battery life. For example, by setting the maximum ranging sampling period to 4x of the initial ranging period, the ranging power penalty is approximately divided by 4 if the responder is static or quasi-static to the transmitter. Among exemplary technical effects and benefits, some embodiments of the present disclosure allow prediction of movement patterns of UWB-equipped receiving devices, thus improving accuracy and efficiency of UWB-equipped transmitting devices.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a data manager 26 according to one example of a suitable implementation. The data manager 26 may include any computing or electronic device capable of including firmware, hardware, and/or executing software instructions to achieve the functionality described herein, such as a computer server, desktop computing device, laptop computing device, smart phone, computing tablet, etc. The data manager 26 includes a processor device 78, a system memory 80, and a system bus 84. The system memory 80 may include a non-volatile memory 86 and a volatile memory 88. The non-volatile memory 86 may include read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and the like. Volatile memory 88 typically includes Random Access Memory (RAM). A basic input/output system (BIOS) 90 may be stored in the non-volatile memory 86 and may include the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the data manager 26.

It should be noted that the data manager 26 may be or otherwise represent a "UWB-equipped device" as described with respect to the present embodiment. Specifically, a UWB-equipped device may be defined as a data manager (e.g., data manager 26) that includes or otherwise communicates with UWB sensor(s) (e.g., UWB sensor 104). However, as defined in this disclosure, a "UWB-equipped device" is not limited to a device or data manager that includes each or any of the components of data manager 26. Conversely, a UWB-equipped device should be understood to broadly include any UWB sensor (e.g., a stand-alone passive reflective UWB sensor, etc.), or any device, component, system, or architecture that includes or otherwise communicates with a UWB sensor.

The system bus 84 provides an interface for system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 80 and the processor device 78. The system bus 84 may be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. The processor device 78 may be any commercially available or proprietary processor, central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, or the like.

The data manager 26 may include, be coupled to, or otherwise receive input from the UWB sensor(s) 104. For example, the data manager 26 may be a smart phone device having one or more UWB sensors 104 connected to the system bus 84. For another example, the data manager 26 may be a computing device that receives data from an external UWB sensor (e.g., via a wired or wireless connection). For yet another example, the data manager 26 may be a computing device within a computing system/architecture/network that includes UWB sensor(s) 104. As such, it should generally be understood that the data manager 26 and UWB sensor 104 may broadly constitute a "UWB equipped device" in any manner.

The data manager 26 may also include or be coupled to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, such as storage 92, which may represent an internal or external Hard Disk Drive (HDD), flash memory, or the like. Storage 92, as well as other drives and associated computer-readable media and computer-usable media, may provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, etc. Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to a HDD, it should be appreciated that other types of media which can be read by a computer, such as optical disks, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, cartridges, and the like, can also be used in the operating environment, and further, that any such media can contain computer-executable instructions for performing the novel methods of the disclosed embodiments.

An operating system 94 and any number of application programs 96 may be stored in the volatile memory 88, wherein the application programs 96 represent various computer executable instructions corresponding to programs, applications, functions, etc. that may implement the functions described herein in whole or in part. Application 96 may also reside on a storage mechanism provided by storage 92. As such, all or a portion of the functionality described herein may be implemented as a computer program product stored on a transitory or non-transitory computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium, such as storage 92, volatile memory 88, non-volatile memory 86, etc. The computer program product comprises complex programming instructions, such as complex computer readable program code, to cause the processor device 78 to perform the steps necessary to implement the functions described herein. The processor device 78 may act as a controller or control system for the data manager 26 to implement the functions described herein based on a computer program product.

An operator such as a user may also be able to input one or more configuration commands via the communication interface 100 via the keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, or a touch sensitive surface such as a display device, via the input device interface 98, or remotely via a web interface, terminal program, or the like. Display devices coupled to system bus 84 may be driven via video port 102. The communication interface 100 may be wired or wireless and facilitate communication with any number of devices via the communication network 22, the border router 20, the light fixtures 14, the wall controller 12, the user devices 30, and/or the UWB sensor 104 in a direct or indirect manner.

Fig. 4 is a data flow diagram for communicating between a first UWB-equipped device 302 and a second UWB-equipped device 304, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, the dashed boxes and lines indicate steps are optional.

The first UWB-equipped device 302 may initiate a ranging round with the second UWB-equipped device 304. Specifically, at step 306, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may transmit one or more UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device 304 for each of a plurality of ranging rounds according to the first ranging time interval. For example, for each of a plurality of ranging passes, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may transmit and receive one or more ranging signals in each of the plurality of ranging passes according to the ranging time interval T.

In some embodiments, the location measurements may include a distance between the first UWB-equipped device 302 and the second UWB-equipped device 304, an angle between the first UWB-equipped device 302 and the second UWB-equipped device 304, and/or sensor data from one or more sensors of the second UWB-equipped device 304 that describe a location of the second UWB-equipped device 304 or movement of the second UWB-equipped device 304.

More generally, in some embodiments, the location measurement(s) include a list of distances between the controller and the responder, a list of angles of arrival between the controller and the responder, or a tuple comprising distances and angles between the controller and the responder.

In step 308, the second UWB-equipped device 304 receives one or more UWB ranging signals and returns one or more position measurements for each of a plurality of ranging runs according to the first ranging time interval. Continuing with the previous example, the second UWB-equipped device 304 may receive one or more ranging signals and transmit one or more position measurements according to the first ranging time interval.

It should be noted that although embodiments of the present disclosure are described with respect to a single responding device (e.g., second UWB-equipped device 304), the proposed embodiments may be used with any number of UWB-equipped devices.

In some embodiments, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may predict the final location of the second UWB-equipped device 304. Turning to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a flow chart for predicting the final location of a UWB-equipped device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, in step 310A, in some embodiments, the first UWB-equipped device 302 determines a current location and a predicted final location of the second UWB-equipped device based on one or more location measurements received across the plurality of ranging rounds at step 308. In some embodiments, to determine the current location and the predicted final location at step 308, the first UWB-equipped device 302 generates data representing the predicted final location of the second UWB-equipped device based on the location measurements across multiple ranging runs using one or more prediction techniques. The prediction technique used by the first UWB-equipped device 302 may be or otherwise include any kind of prediction technique or method. For example, the prediction technique(s) may be or otherwise include a kalman filter. As another example, the prediction technique may be a machine learning model trained to predict a final location of the UWB-equipped device based on location measurements received from the UWB-equipped device.

Following this example, to generate data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device 304, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may process one or more position measurements for each of a plurality of ranging runs using a machine-learned position prediction model to obtain data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device. The machine-learned position prediction model may be or otherwise utilize any kind of model architecture or learning technique (e.g., reinforcement learning model, neural network, transformer model, regression model, etc.).

In some embodiments, to generate data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device 304, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may utilize a machine-learned position prediction model to process one or more position measurements for each of a plurality of ranging runs while processing historical device data. In some embodiments, the historical device data may be position measurement data that has been collected from the second UWB-equipped device 304 in a previous ranging round. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the historical device data may describe various historical aspects of the second UWB-equipped device 304 (e.g., device type, previously predicted final location, previously determined movement pattern, etc.). For example, the historical device data may indicate that the second UWB-equipped device 304 remains historically stationary between 9 a.m. and 5 a.m. during certain days of the week, or that the second UWB-equipped device remains historically stationary between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. every night of the week. Thus, it should be understood that the historical user data may describe or otherwise indicate any previous or current aspect of the second UWB-equipped device 304.

At step 310B, in some embodiments, the first UWB-equipped device 302 determines whether the predicted final location is within the range of interest. The range of interest may be a preset static range configurable for the first UWB-equipped device 302. For example, the range of interest may be a radius of 25 feet around the first UWB-equipped device 302. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the range of interest of the first UWB-equipped device 302 may be dynamically determined based on various factors or aspects of the first UWB-equipped device 302 and/or the second UWB-equipped device 304. For example, the range of interest of the first UWB-equipped device 302 may be dynamically adjusted based on time of day, day of the week, remaining power level of the first and/or second UWB-equipped devices 302/304, current and/or predicted processing load of the first and/or second UWB-equipped devices 302/304, and the like.

In this manner, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may utilize dynamic adjustment of its range of interest as a method of reducing or increasing ranging rounds, thus reducing inefficient ranging round utilization and improving the efficiency and battery performance of the first and/or second first UWB-equipped devices 302/304.

Returning to fig. 4, at step 312, based on the one or more location measurements, the first UWB-equipped device 302 modifies the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval that is different from the first ranging time interval. For example, one or more position measurements across multiple ranging runs may indicate that the position change of the second UWB-equipped device 304 over time is below a threshold level (e.g., the device movement is relatively small). Based on the measurements, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may reduce (modify) the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval that is less than the first ranging time interval. Specifically, by reducing the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval, UWB-equipped device 302 performs fewer ranging passes when performing a ranging pass according to the second ranging time interval.

In some embodiments, to modify the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval, the first UWB-equipped device sends data to the second UWB-equipped device 304 indicating instructions to skip one or more of a plurality of subsequent ranging passes (e.g., perform fewer ranging passes) according to the second ranging time interval. In some embodiments, the data instructs the second UWB-equipped device 304 to ignore instructions for one or more received ranging signals. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the second UWB-equipped device 304 stores data indicative of a desired number of ranging signals (e.g., data indicative of a first ranging time interval), and the data is indicative of an instruction to modify the desired number of ranging signals according to a second ranging time interval.

In some embodiments, to modify the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval at step 312, the first UWB-equipped device 302 determines a degree of movement of the second UWB-equipped device 304 between one or more position measurements spanning multiple ranging runs. Based on the degree of movement, the first UWB-equipped device 312 modifies the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval. For example, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may determine that the degree of movement is less than a threshold degree of movement. To modify the first ranging time interval, the first UWB-equipped device 302 modifies the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval that is less than the first ranging time interval. As another example, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may determine that the degree of movement is greater than a threshold degree of movement. To modify the first ranging time interval, the first UWB-equipped device 302 modifies the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval that is greater than or equal to the first ranging time interval.

To provide a specific example of the described embodiment, let d denote distance and α denote angle of arrival. At steps 306/308, the first UWB-equipped device 302 may invoke a Ranging Round Skip (RRS) function to send and receive ranging signals and position measurements. There may be two types of RRS functions: 1) RRS checks if the responder is static in the controller reference and 2) RRS attempts to predict if the responder is at a distance or angle of interest to the application.

For the example of RRS function 1, RRS checks whether X is d for n=k+1 _n -d _k ||<Delta, which means that the distance of the responding device does not change by more than delta for X consecutive measurements. Additionally or alternatively, RRS may check whether X is α for n=k+1 _n -α _k ||<Phi, this means that the angle of the responding device does not change by more than phi for X consecutive measurements.

In some embodiments, the type of condition evaluated depends on the application. The thresholds delta and phi and the number of consecutive measurements considered also depend on the application. If such criteria are met, for example, a first UWB equipped device (e.g., a controller host) may decide to increase the ranging time interval. For example, if the ranging with the second UWB-equipped device (e.g., a responder) is within the ranging resolution of X consecutive measurements (about 10 to 20 cm), the controller may decide to measure the distance with a sampling period = 2*T (T is the initial ranging time interval). If the next X measurements (taken at 2*T sampling period) still report that the remote device is not moving (or not significantly moving), the controller host may again decide to double the ranging time interval (= 4*T) while it is less than the maximum interval.

Turning to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a chart 600 illustrating a device equipped with UWB resuming an initial ranging time interval after determining that the device has moved beyond a threshold or that the device angle has changed beyond a threshold, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, as shown in graph 600, if the UWB-equipped responder device is not moved in 8 consecutive measurements (3 completed at interval=t, 3 completed at interval= 2*T, 2 completed at interval= 4*T); but on the 9 th measurement it moves beyond the threshold, the host resumes the initial ranging time interval.

Returning to fig. 4, in step 314, in some embodiments, the first UWB-equipped device 302 transmits one or more second UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device 304 in a second plurality of ranging passes according to the second ranging time interval and receives one or more second position measurements from the second UWB-equipped device 304.

At step 318, in some embodiments, based on the one or more second location measurements, the first UWB-equipped device 302 modifies the second ranging time interval to a third ranging time interval different from the second ranging time interval. In some embodiments, the third ranging time interval is equal to the first ranging time interval.

Fig. 7 is a data flow diagram 700A illustrating communications between a controller host and a UWB-equipped controller device utilizing a ranging round-robin algorithm, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, as previously described, the RRS algorithm may be used to determine whether to skip a ranging round. The RRS algorithm is responsible for deciding whether or not ranging rounds should be skipped and how many rounds can be skipped. In some embodiments, the RRS algorithm may be performed on a UWB-equipped device (e.g., the first device 302 of fig. 4). However, in some other embodiments, the RRS algorithm may be executed on a controller host (e.g., controller host 702), and the results of the algorithm may be communicated to UWB-equipped controller device 704. It should be noted that the controller host 702 may be or otherwise include any server, system, architecture, or device (e.g., a web server, etc.). Specifically, in some embodiments, controller host 702 is a component of UWB-equipped controller device 704 or is communicatively coupled to UWB-equipped controller device 704.

Flowchart 700A illustrates a series of ranging passes 708A according to a ranging pass skipping algorithm that may modify the ranging time interval.

Round 0 of ranging round 708A is a regular ranging round. For N consecutive measurements, the distance is unchanged. The RRS algorithm determines to double the ranging time interval (to 2*T) and resets the counter for consecutive measurements that UWB-equipped response device 706 is not moving.

Ranging round 1 of ranging round 708A is a regular ranging round. The UWB-equipped controller device 704 modifies the ranging time interval to a ranging time interval that is less than the previous interval. Specifically, UWB-equipped controller device 704 modifies the ranging time interval by setting a step = 2 in the ranging control message to inform UWB-equipped responding device 706 that the next 2 rounds may be skipped.

Ranging runs 2 and 3 of ranging run 708A are skipped according to the modified ranging time interval.

Ranging round 4 of ranging round 708A is a regular ranging round. The distance is unchanged. The RRS algorithm increments a counter of continuous measurements as it moves from the UWB-equipped responder device 706. Since the counter is smaller than N, the distance is still measured.

Round 5 of ranging round 708A is a regular ranging round. To modify the ranging time interval again, the UWB-equipped controller device sets a step = 2 in the Ranging Control Message (RCM) to inform the UWB-equipped responding device 706 that the next 2 rounds can be skipped.

Although not depicted, runs 6 and 7 of ranging run 708A are skipped.

Fig. 8 is a data flow diagram 700B illustrating communication between a controller host and a UWB-equipped controller device utilizing a ranging round-robin algorithm, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the present embodiment utilizes a suspend ranging parameter during the ranging round 708B. When a suspend ranging is issued, it is indicated whether or not to suspend ranging.

For example, by setting (on the UWB command interface) supensingranging = true, controller host 702 aborts ranging round k of ranging round 708B. The RCM control message informs UWB-equipped response device 706 that the current round has been aborted. Stride = N informs UWB-equipped response device 706 that the next N rounds have also been skipped. After completion, the spintranging is set to False so that the round k+n+1 can be performed as a regular ranging round.

The embodiment shown in fig. 8 addresses the case where UWB-equipped controller device 704 (or an application executed by device 704) is only interested in the range of the transponder within a given range. Thus, the second embodiment predicts the final position or final angle of the UWB-equipped response device 706 and skips the ranging round when the predicted tuple (d, α) is outside the range of interest.

Fig. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a kalman filter prediction technique for determining a final position or angle of a UWB-equipped device, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that although fig. 8 illustrates the use of a one-way kalman filter that measures only distance, the prediction techniques of the present disclosure are not limited to kalman filters, and the measurement of the present disclosure is not limited to distance. For example, fig. 8 can be readily generalized to utilize tuples (d, α) with multidimensional kalman filters.

In step 302, a measurement step is performed. In particular in conjunction with measurement uncertainty, i.e. ranging noise r _n Together, the measured values, i.e. the measured distance z, are collected _n (e.g., as an output of a ranging pass). Typically, this ranging noise r _n About 10cm. However, r _n Depending on the ranging time (i.e., double sided or single sided). For example, in DS-TWR, r _n About 10cm, and slightly larger for SS-TWR.

In step 304, an update operation is performed. The updating step can be expressed as a kalman gain: furthermore, the distance estimate is updated such that +.>Wherein, the liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display device,is the estimated distance at t=n-1, < >>Is the estimated distance at t=n. Next, the distance uncertainty is updated such that: />Wherein (1) >Is the estimated distance uncertainty at t=n-1, < >>Is the estimated distance uncertainty at t=n.

In step 306, a prediction operation is performed. Specifically, the prediction uncertainty is predicted such thatWherein (1)>Is the estimated distance uncertainty at t=n+1, +.>Is the estimated distance uncertainty at t=n, < >>Is the estimated speed uncertainty at t=n.

In many cases, the first and second outfitsUWB devices move fairly slowly.May be set to a maximum speed, a static and predefined value. In another embodiment, -> May be estimated as a long term average velocity. In such a case, the +.> Thus->Can be estimated as However, if the second UWB equipped device moves very fast, it is possible to take into account +.>The concept is generalized for state vectors and using multidimensional kalman filters.

Fig. 10 is a data flow diagram 700C illustrating communications between a controller host utilizing a ranging round-robin algorithm and a UWB-equipped controller device predicting a final position of the UWB-equipped response device, according to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure. To follow the example of fig. 9, d _0,0 May be initialized to a first ranging measurement, and for a series of ranging passes 708C, When the RRS algorithm receives a measurement notification over the UWBS-host interface, it updates the estimated distanceAnd p _n,n Uncertainty, and predict the next distance +.>And->Uncertainty. Next, the RRS algorithm checks if the second UWB-equipped device is outside the range of interest, i.e., +.> Andwherein D is _{Upper limit of} And D _{Lower limit of} Is the upper and lower limits of the distance of interest. If so, and also for X-1 previous ranging, the RSS algorithm determines the next ranging round to skip the ranging round 708C. Thus, after the responder is signaled in-band, the next ranging round of ranging round 708C is aborted. Since no measurements are made, there is no need to activate (e.g., wake up) the UWB-equipped device or any application executed by the device. Meanwhile, the RRS algorithm predicts the position and position uncertainty at t=2×Δt, which is used for the update step at the next measurement of the ranging round 708C.

It is contemplated that any of the foregoing aspects may be combined and/or various individual aspects and features described herein to achieve additional advantages. Any of the various embodiments disclosed herein can be combined with one or more other disclosed embodiments, unless indicated to the contrary herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

Claims

1. An Ultra Wideband (UWB) -equipped device with reduced UWB power consumption, comprising:

one or more UWB transmitters;

one or more UWB receivers;

processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UWB-equipped device to:

according to the first ranging time interval, within a plurality of ranging passes:

transmitting one or more UWB ranging signals to a second UWB-equipped device; and

receiving one or more position measurements from the second UWB-equipped device, wherein a position measurement indicates a position of the second UWB-equipped device; and

the first ranging time interval is modified to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs.

2. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval comprises: data is sent to the second UWB-equipped device indicating an instruction to skip one or more of a plurality of subsequent ranging passes according to the second ranging time interval.

3. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval comprises:

determining a degree of movement of the second UWB-equipped device based on the one or more position measurements spanning the plurality of ranging passes; and

based on the degree of movement, the first ranging time interval is modified to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval.

4. A UWB-equipped device according to claim 3, wherein:

the degree of movement is less than a threshold degree of movement; and is also provided with

Modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval includes: the first ranging time interval is modified to be smaller than the second ranging time interval of the first ranging time interval.

5. A UWB-equipped device according to claim 3, wherein:

the degree of movement is greater than a threshold degree of movement; and is also provided with

Modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval includes: the first ranging time interval is modified to be greater than or equal to the second ranging time interval of the first ranging time interval.

6. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: causing the UWB-equipped device to perform, in a second plurality of ranging passes, according to the second ranging time interval:

transmitting one or more second UWB ranging signals to the second UWB-equipped device; and

one or more second location measurements are received from the second UWB-equipped device.

7. The UWB-equipped device of claim 6 wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: causing the UWB-equipped device to modify the second ranging time interval to a third ranging time interval different from the second ranging time interval based on the one or more second position measurements spanning the second plurality of ranging runs.

8. The UWB-equipped device of claim 7 wherein the third ranging time interval is equal to the first ranging time interval.

9. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein, prior to modifying the first ranging time interval, the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UWB-equipped device to:

determining a current location and a predicted final location of the second UWB-equipped device based on the one or more location measurements spanning the plurality of ranging runs; and

Judging whether the predicted final position is within an interested range;

wherein modifying the first ranging time interval comprises: the first ranging time interval is modified to the second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the determination.

10. The UWB-equipped device of claim 9 wherein the determining comprises: judging that the predicted final position is not in the interested range; and is also provided with

Wherein modifying the first ranging time interval comprises: the first ranging time interval is reduced to a second ranging time interval that is less than the first ranging time interval based on the determination.

11. The UWB-equipped device of claim 9 wherein determining the current location and the predicted final location of the second UWB-equipped device comprises: data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device is generated based on the respective one or more position measurements using one or more prediction techniques.

12. The UWB-equipped device of claim 11 wherein the one or more prediction techniques comprise a kalman filter.

13. The UWB-equipped device of claim 11 wherein:

The one or more prediction techniques include a machine learning model; and is also provided with

Wherein generating the data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device comprises: processing one or more position measurements and historical device data for each of the plurality of ranging runs using the machine learning model to obtain the data indicative of the predicted final position of the second UWB-equipped device, wherein the historical device data describes one or more previous sets of position measurements for the second UWB-equipped device.

14. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein modifying the first ranging time interval comprises: modifying the first ranging time interval to a second ranging time interval different from the first ranging time interval based on the one or more position measurements of each of the plurality of ranging runs and historical device data, wherein the historical device data describes one or more previous sets of position measurements of the second UWB-equipped device.

15. The UWB-equipped device of claim 1 wherein the location measurements include one or more of:

A distance between the UWB-equipped device and the second UWB-equipped device;

an angle between the UWB-equipped device and the second UWB-equipped device; or alternatively

Sensor data from one or more sensors of the second UWB-equipped device, the sensor data describing a location of the second UWB-equipped device or a movement of the second UWB-equipped device.

16. A UWB-equipped device having reduced Ultra Wideband (UWB) power consumption, wherein the UWB-equipped device is adapted to:

17. A method performed by a first Ultra Wideband (UWB) -equipped device to reduce UWB power consumption, comprising:

18. The method of claim 17, wherein modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval comprises: data is sent to the second UWB-equipped device indicating an instruction to skip one or more of a plurality of subsequent ranging passes according to the second ranging time interval.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein modifying the first ranging time interval to the second ranging time interval comprises:

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising: