GB2583340A

GB2583340A - Asset tracking tag

Info

Publication number: GB2583340A
Application number: GB1905643.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Noden John; Cowper Steve; Tew Steve
Original assignee: Directional Systems Tracking Ltd
Current assignee: Directional Syststems Tracking Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-23
Filing date: 2019-04-23
Publication date: 2020-10-28
Also published as: GB201905643D0

Abstract

A device C for attaching to an asset, suitable for use in locating said asset comprises a hermetically sealed outer casing and a circuit board sealed within the outer casing. The circuit board comprises a low power wireless radio frequency transmitter and electronic components for causing the transmitter to repeatedly transmit a device identifier at intervals that are randomly varied around a fixed interval. The components may also operate the transmitter to transmit using a plurality of different frequencies. A system for tracking the location of assets comprises a plurality of previously described devices C, F etc. and a plurality of base stations each comprising a set of wireless frequency receivers L, M, etc. configured to receive data from the devices. In another aspect, a device is claimed comprising a hermetically sealed outer casing, a circuit board comprising a low power radio transmitter and components for causing the device to repeatedly transmit a device identifier, and a polymer gel within the casing, the properties of the gel and casing being such that they do not significantly impede signals transmitted by the radio transmitter.

Description

ASSET TRACKING TAG

Technical Field

The present invention relates to devices and a system that allow the tracking of individual tags that are attached to products (assets). Once attached, the asset can be tracked remotely on a mobile device or computer device by the manufacturer and/or customer. The attached tag also maintains authenticity of the product throughout the supply chain.

Background

Securing an asset with an asset tracker tag is important: when you are unaware of the exact location and status of your asset(s) it is much easier for them to become lost or stolen or delayed. The results can include time lost in locating them, lost productivity, and the wasted cost of replacing missing assets. Examples of assets include, but are not limited to, car parts, perfumes, electronic equipment, wines, cages, containers, pallets.

Asset management of transported inventory is also very important. For example, a logistics truck may collect assets from a central distribution centre and deliver the assets to a hub. From the hub, the assets are delivered to a smaller storage facility, then to a store for retail sale to the customer.

Consider as an example car parts that are manufactured in France. The car parts are put into a container specifically for car bumpers called "bumper parts for classic car 123".

The container containing bumper parts for classic car 123 is sent to Germany from France, then to Italy. Then once in Italy, the parts are then put into a large storage facility. The car manufacturer, in general, wishes to know exactly where the bumper parts for classic car 123 are, but they may typically have to wait for this information to be added to a computer system to find out. The parts may also be in transit or at a border. Once the parts arrive at the storage facility, a worker at the facility is told to get the container for bumper parts for classic car 123: he knows they are in the storage facility, but must now search for them. If they have been put in the wrong section of the facility, it will be time consuming for him to find them.

In another example, 1,000 cameras are manufactured and put onto a pallet, before being transported from one country to another. The pallet arrives at the airport and is loaded onto a trailer. The pallet is taken to the central distribution centre which delivers the packages to a hub. From the hub, the packages are delivered to a smaller storage facility, then to a store for retail sale. Somewhere along the supply change, assets may have gone missing but this problem is only noticed once the pallet arrives at the retail store and the cameras are counted.

The current invention looks to solve these problems.

Summary

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a device for attaching to an asset in order to allow the location of the asset to be tracked. The device comprises a hermetically sealed outer casing; and a circuit board hermetically sealed within the outer casing. The circuit board comprises a low power wireless radio frequency transmitter and electronic components for causing the transmitter to repeatedly transmit a device identifier at intervals that are randomly varied around a fixed interval.

The fixed interval may be in the range of 5 to 30 seconds. The maximum variation of the intervals around the fixed interval may, for example, be of the order of 500 ms, 5 s or 10 s or the maximum variation may be a proportion of the fixed interval, such as 10%, 30%, 50% or 80% of the fixed interval.

The electronic components may cause the transmitter to transmit said device identifier using one of a plurality of different frequencies. The plurality of different frequencies may be frequencies with an allocated frequency band.

The circuit board may be configured to use the BluetoothTM protocol and said allocated frequency band is the allocated BluetoothTM band, e.g. 2.400 to 2.485 GHz.

The radio frequency transmitter and electronic components may be integrated as a single integrated circuit component.

The device may comprise means for fixing the device to an asset or to asset packaging.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a system for tracking the location of assets. The system comprises: a multiplicity of devices as described above; and a plurality of base stations each comprising a set of wireless radio frequency receivers configured to receive data transmitted on respective ones of said different frequencies.

The system may also comprise a server or servers for receiving device identifiers received by base stations from devices, and for determining an approximate location of the devices using triangulation or another location resolving method.

The system may also comprise a plurality of user computer devices such as tablet computers or mobile phones, the server or servers being configured to send approximate location information for a device of interest to one of the computer devices requesting that information, the computer device being configured to present the information on a display as an overlay on a map or captured video image.

The computer devices may each comprise an antenna or antennae configured to receive a device identifier from a device and electronic components for determining local location information for the device from received signals.

The computer devices are configured to switch said presentation from a location provided by the server or servers to the local location information when the latter is determined to be more accurate.

The plurality of base stations may include a plurality of base stations at fixed locations around a given service area, such as a warehouse.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a device for attaching to an asset in order to allow the location of the asset to be tracked. The device comprises: a hermetically sealed outer casing; a circuit board comprising a low power wireless radio frequency transmitter and electronic components for causing the transmitter to repeatedly transmit a device identifier; and a polymer gel within the casing and within which the circuit board is embedded. The properties of the gel and the casing are such that they do not significantly impede signals transmitted by the radio frequency transmitter.

The circuit board may be mounted to the casing via a plurality of pegs formed integrally with the casing.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 shows the path of the data. The MAC code and identifier data from the tag is sent to the transceiver. The transceiver location on a map is always known as the transceiver collects GNSS data and pings this data to the server. The server can also send data to the transceiver. The server collates the received data. The data is then sent to a computer or sent to a mobile device. Also, as the mobile device gets nearer to the tag, the tag can send data direct to the mobile device.

Figure 2 shows how a mobile device finding a tag using augmented reality, by super imposing the tags position through the mobile device display. The mobile device communicates with the server, the server displays the tags relative to the transceiver that has picked up the tag.

Figure 3 shows the tag monitoring eco system. Either the manufacturer or customer can view the tags location at any time in the total supply chain. The manufacturing facility, transportation vehicle, storage hub and retail shop all have RF transceivers. The tag is in RF contact with the transceiver and the transceiver is tracked via GNSS so it's position on a map and time are always known. The data from the transceiver is send via GSM to the server and the mobile device and computer and in communication with the server, allowing both the mobile device and computer to locate the tag at any time. The customer can also authenticate the product with tag attached sent from the manufacturer is trustworthy due to the unique MAC code matching the code on the mobile device screen.

Figure 4 shows the triangulation of the tag position based the signal strength sent by the tag to the transceivers in a room. Where the lines cross is the approximate position of the tag.

Detailed Description

A tag comprising a case to house a radio frequency (RF) circuit board and powered by a battery are sealed closed.

The circuit comprises a plurality of batteries, an RF transceiver, a processor and antenna.

In a further embodiment, the tag circuit can contain sensors for measuring, time, light, temperature, movement, humidity, Ultra Violet radiation, a Piezo transducer.

In one embodiment, the electronic circuit would be protected from conditions that will affect its performance; examples of such conditions are temperature, water, agitation, force and shock. By placing the circuit in a case that seats the circuit, then immersing the circuit and battery in a gel polymer with a very slow isothermal peak that does not thermally stress the components on the circuit board, this then totally immerses the circuit and battery in the polymer gel and protects it from ingress of foreign bodies, such as dirt or dust, and from mechanical shock.

The protective polymer dielectric potting gel compound is a low viscosity sealing material to protect the circuit board and components. The gel is poured into the case immersing the circuit that is housing the circuit board, the case material is made from a material that can withstand high temperature, in one example of the case material Polytetrafluoroethylene, a synthetic fluoropolymer, is used, but other materials can be used.

An example polymer gel is UL 94-HB from a company called Ray Tech.

In a further embodiment of the current invention, the circuit board is protected in the case by foam, between the circuit board and the tag case.

In another embodiment, the electronic circuit would be protected from conditions that will affect its performance; examples are temperature, water, agitation, force and shock. By placing the circuit in a case that seats the circuit made from rubber, then immersing the circuit and battery in rubber material does not set, or thermally stress the components on the circuit board, this then totally immerses the circuit and battery in the rubber and protects it and allows an amount of movement of the tag, so it can be attached to curved surfaces, in one example via an adhesive.

It is proposed, that the tag is attached to the asset via adhesive, or tag is attached using rivets or screws via holes and slots in the tag case.

When the circuit board is manufactured, its processor has a unique MAC code. MAC is an acronym for Message Authentication Code, which is an individual 17-or 18-digit alphanumeric number and is unique to all processors that are manufactured.

In another embodiment, the tracker identifier (MAC) code, forms part of a Quick Response (QR) code, and the code is scanned with a scanner and the identity of the tracker is transmitted to a server.

The tag processor's MAC code is generated at the manufacturing stage and made into a QR and/ or barcode label and the MAC code serial number is printed. This label is attached to the tag case. This helps identify one tag from another.

When the tag is attached to the asset or product, the QR code is scanned by a scanner, which can be a mobile device camera or hand-held scanner, for example. Alternatively the serial number can be entered into a device, and this data is then entered into a computer system, along with a description name of what the tag is attached to.

In one example the tag is attached to a perfume box. The tag is scanned, a description name is entered, which is then sent to the cloud server.

The Mac code/serial number is unique, i.e. there can never be two identical Mac codes.

s It may be helpful to refer to the following references used in the drawings: Fig 1: A. Barcode/Quick Release (QR) code B. Tag C. Serial number D. Data flow direction E. Transceiver F. Mobile device G. Display is H. Data entry describing the tag I. Satellite J. Cloud server for collecting data K. Mobile device L. Display M. Information about the tag N. Computer terminal Fig 2: A. Mobile device B. Display C. Tag 1 D. Data flow direction E. Display F. Tag 2 G. Tag 3 H. Tag 4 I. Cloud Server for collecting data J. Storage area K. Storage building L. Transceiver 1 M. Transceiver 2 N. Transceiver 3 0. Transceiver 4 P. Transceiver 5 Q. Transceiver 6 R. Transceiver 7 S. Transceiver 8 T. Transceiver 9 U. Pallet V. Entrance to storage building W. Transceiver 10 Fig 3: A. Manufacturers computer B. Tag C. Van with transceiver fitted D. Manufacturing facility with transceiver fitted E. Road F. Retails store with transceiver fitted G. Storage hub with transceiver fitted H. Customer I. Customer mobile device Fig 4: A. Transceiver 1 B. Transceiver 2 C. Transceiver 3 D. Transceiver 4 E. Transceiver 5 F. Transceiver 5 G. Tag H. Data direction I. Storage room Fig 1. A shows the OR code on the tag. Fig 1. F shows the mobile device. Fig.1 H shows the data entry on the mobile device where the description of the tag is entered. Once entered, this description and serial number are then sent to the cloud server, Fig 1. J. Each tag's firmware transmission timing is different from the other, to avoid collision of signals from different tags when these signals are received by the transceiver.

For example, the tag circuit board are designed to send a plurality of RF signals at different intervals, which helps to reduce collision issues when many tags are in close proximity to each other and sending data to the same transceiver on the same frequency.

These plurality of RF signals are received by a plurality of transceivers. As shown in Fig 2. The transceiver is an electronic unit that connects to a telephone network via a cellular network (e.g. 3G or 4G).

The transceiver also has a GNSS unit, (Global Navigation Satellite System), is the standard generic term for satellite navigation systems that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage.

Using GNSS, the transceiver's location can always be determined on a map. The tag sends a Radio Frequency (RF) identifier that is the processor's MAC code. The tag sends this RF identifier every 0.5 milliseconds, on three different frequencies near to 2.4 GHz.

The tag sends its data to a transceiver; the transceiver has a plurality of independent RF transceivers, each for receiving one of the transmitted frequencies from the tag. This further reduces the possibility of collision when multiple tags are transmitting near to each other. The tag sends its ID data to a transceiver, which in turn stores the ID data and sends this data to a cloud server. The data sent comprises, for example, the ID of the tag and the time stamp and GNSS data and battery level data of the tag. The cloud server then can show the location of the proximity of the tag on a map.

At the server level, the ID for the tag is a serial number. The serial number is converted to a description name of the asset it is attached to. The description name is assigned to the tag when the tag is attached to the asset. Thus, if a person is looking for a particular asset, they can enter a name for the asset as opposed to entering the serial number for the tag.

In an example, the tag C (Fig 2.) is attached to a pallet (Fig 2.U) that has mobile phones inventory on it. The tag C is for example named "Acme Mobile phones".

A worker is asked to find the pallet with "Acme Mobile phones". The worker would use a dedicated mobile App that is linked to the server, the worker enters "Acme Mobile phones" into his mobile device that connects to the server (Fig 2. I) and enters the storage facility.

In Fig 2. the tag C, RF is picked up by transceivers L and M. As both transceivers have GNSS, their position on a map is known. This information is then sent to the server Fig 2. I and this information sent from the server to the mobile device Fig 2. A. The worker with the mobile device Fig 2. A. goes into the storage area in Fig 2. J, they would see the approximate location of the "Acme Mobile phones" relative to the transceivers L and M, this then helps the worker to locate the pallet.

In a further embodiment, the mobile device has its own RF transceiver, and the tag named "Acme Mobile phones" can be received by the mobile device directly, this will further help to locate the Tag named "Acme Mobile phones" using the signal strength of the RF tag to the mobile device antenna via the display on the mobile device. As the mobile device is moved around, the mobile device antenna can find the strongest signal, and follow a visual indicator on the mobile screen until they locate the tag (Acme Mobile phones).

In one example, one or more transceivers may be fitted at a manufacturing facility. Also, the transceivers are attached to the trucks and trailers that carry the tagged manufactured goods. The central distribution centre also has transceivers in its storage building. The transceivers are also fitted to the van that carry the assets from the storage facility to the smaller storage facility, then to a store for retail sale to the customer.

If a tag is attached to the product at the factory, the transceiver near the tag collects the tag data, and If the product is then taken to another location, this allows the manufacturer to find the tag anywhere in the supply chain (Fig. 3) when connected to the server via a computer or mobile device.

Key aspects of an asset tracker are management and financial reporting. The entire life cycle of an asset is considered from the time of acquisition and commissioning, through maintenance and deployment, to decommissioning and replacement. Location and status must be updated as needed and management reports on status, condition, and location must be available.

The asset tracker can report its geographical position, movement data, time of movement, whether the asset tracker has moved out of a predefined location on a map, for example, the asset tracker may be attached to a machine that is in a particular location geographically and movement outside of the location could mean the asset is being stolen.

In one embodiment, the tag is fitted with an electronic movement detector, such as an accelerometer or other type of inertial sensor, in order to obtain acceleration or "G force" data. If the G force were to go to a predefined level, this information is sent to the transceiver and logged. This could then raise an alert to the owner.

In a further embodiment of the same invention, the tag is fitted with a temperature detector, such as a thermistor. If the temperature were to exceed a predefined level, this information is sent to the transceiver and logged. An alert to the manufacturer could then be raised.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the tag is fined with a light detector, such as a light sensor. If the light were to go to or above a predefined level, this information is sent to the transceiver and logged. An alert to the manufacturer could then be raised.

In another embodiment of the invention, the tag is fitted with an audio sounder, such as a Piezo Transducer. In the event the tag needs to be located, a signal can be sent from the mobile device or the transceiver to the tag circuit via RF, the tag then activates the audio sounder. This aids a person locating a tag. The sounder may, for example, be activated by the mobile device when the mobile device is within a predetermined range of the tag.

In an embodiment of the invention, the RF tag's position is more accurately located using a transceiver that has a plurality of helix antennas and ground plane integrated into the transceiver.

In an embodiment of the current invention, the RF tag's position is more accurately located using a unit that has a plurality of helix antenna's and ground plane integrated, that are attached to the transceiver via a connecting port.

In an embodiment of the current invention, the tag will send a signal using a plurality of different RF frequencies and/or different powers, to allow transceivers operating at different frequencies to obtain the RF signal. In one example, a mobile device receives one of the frequencies and a separate transceiver receives another frequency. This allows different transceivers to work with the same tag, e.g. transceivers which are located at different distances from the tag.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A device for attaching to an asset in order to allow the location of the asset to be tracked, the device comprising: a hermetically sealed outer casing; and a circuit board hermetically sealed within the outer casing and comprising a low power wireless radio frequency transmitter and electronic components for causing the transmitter to repeatedly transmit a device identifier at intervals that are randomly varied around a fixed interval.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said fixed interval is in the range of 5 to 30 seconds.
3. A device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said electronic components cause the transmitter to transmit said device identifier using one of a plurality of different frequencies.
4. A device according to claim 3, wherein said plurality of different frequencies are frequencies with an allocated frequency band.
5. A device according to claim 4, wherein said circuit board is configured to use the BluetoothTM protocol and said allocated frequency band is the allocated BluetoothTM band, e.g. 2.400 to 2.485 GHz.
6. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said radio frequency transmitter and said electronic components are integrated as a single integrated circuit component.
7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims and comprising means for fixing the device to an asset or to asset packaging. 30
8. A system for tracking the location of assets and comprising: a multiplicity of devices according to any one of claims 1 to 7; and a plurality of base stations each comprising a set of wireless radio frequency receivers configured to receive data transmitted on respective ones of said different 35 frequencies.
9. A system according to claim 8 and comprising a server or servers for receiving device identifiers received by base stations from devices, and for determining an approximate location of the devices using triangulation or another location resolving method.
10. A system according to claim 9 and comprising a plurality of user computer devices such as tablet computers or mobile phones, said server or servers being configured to send approximate location information for a device of interest to one of said computer devices requesting that information, the computer device being configured to present the information on a display as an overlay on a map or captured video image.
11. A system according to claim 10, wherein said computer devices each comprise an antenna or antennae configured to receive a device identifier from a device and electronic components for determining local location information for the device from received signals.
12. A system according to claim 11, wherein said computer devices are configured to switch said presentation from a location provided by said server or servers to said local location information when the latter is determined to be more accurate.
13. A system according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein said plurality of base stations includes a plurality of base stations at fixed locations around a given service area, such as a warehouse.
14. A device for attaching to an asset in order to allow the location of the asset to be tracked, the device comprising: a hermetically sealed outer casing; a circuit board comprising a low power wireless radio frequency transmitter and electronic components for causing the transmitter to repeatedly transmit a device identifier; and a polymer gel within the casing and within which the circuit board is embedded, wherein the properties of the gel and the casing are such that they do not significantly impede signals transmitted by the radio frequency transmitter.
15. A device according to claim 14, where the circuit board is mounted to the casing via a plurality of pegs formed integrally with the casing.