NL1043235B1 - Method of tracking, monitoring tracking system and tracker - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, system and node for tracking an object, using long wave radio transmission, in which an object is provided with a 5 device provided with a long wave radio (LoRa) node, a GPS module and/or electronic means for long wave radio gateway identification, in which the object is programmed to periodically leave a stand by mode for determining and transmitting its position to a network relaying the position information to a position registering computer S. The node is provided with a Wifi protocol stack for scanning Wifi information utilisted for in 10 position information when GPS signal is absent such as in indoor situations. Alternatively and additionally, the method may utilise LoRa gateway information for position determining 1043235

Description

METHOD OF TRACKING, MONITORING TRACKING SYSTEM AND TRACKER The present invention relates to a method of tracking devices, in particular displaceable devices, a tracking monitoring system and a tracker or tracking device.

Nowadays tracking devices and systems are commonly known. Many of the current systems are GPS based and as a result will not always be operable within buildings. While this circumstance does not necessarily hamper many public applications, it yet at least commercially is regarded a disadvantage when it comes to finding objects that are generally stored more or less deep within buildings where GPS may not be contacted. There are other tracking systems known to use the fixed locations of telecom provider infrastructure like antenna positions. Other, less widely known systems utilise the so- called long range radio transmitter system (LoRa). A LoRa system typically is maintained by a communications provider, e.g. a national telephone and communications company or institute and in practice forms a so called Wide Area Network (LoRWan). Very often if not mostly provided as a so-called open network service to the public, but it may equally be set up as a dedicated closed network for the customer. While the bandwidth offered by LoraWan is very low compared to internet, it may communicate relatively easily with wireless devices, the range per radio mast may extend up to fifteen kilometres and the power consumption of the involved tracker may be relatively low. This information may also be taken from public articles such as "Wat is Lora eigenlijk", a.0. published at https://www.computable.nl/artikel/opinie/mobility/5776778/1509028/wat-is-lora- eigenlijk.html, on June 13, 2016. The article mentions various potential applications amongst which tracing a bicycle. Specific information as to the nature of the LoRa - network may e.g. be taken from the leaflet "Lora van KPN - Connectiviteit voor Internet of Things", a.0. published at https://docplayer.nl/27149873-Lora-van-kpn-connectiviteit- voor-internet-of-things.htmi. It is known that LoraWan providers offer so-called geolocation services as an option, e.g. see the KPN business web-site hitps://zakelijkforum.kpn.com/lora-forum-16/lora- geolocation-8555/index3.html, for their geolocation option. This LoRa communications provider, as stated by Rick S. at 10 sept. 2018, advises to utilise the geolocation only for outdoor applications. Incidentally, the provider further explains that accuracy for geolocating static objects is 60 meters.

The present invention sets out to provide a satisfactory solution to this apparently widely felt, yet commercially most relevant problem of indoor tracking of objects, in particular in an economic yet reliable manner. The invention also ensures that power consumption remains low and that the tracking device, i.e. it's power source, as used in such system, still remains sufficiently long lasting for commercial application. Yet goals of the present invention are to have the costs of the device relatively low despite the above desired high traceability quality, and to have the tracking device fit a minimalistic envelope, so as to secure widespread use of such a device, i.e. to enable application thereof also into smaller devices to be tracked such as small screwing or drilling equipment.

One such the example of the relevancy of indoor tracking of objects is provided by the business case of so called stack-carts (Dutch: "stapelwagen"), and the so denoted flower cart (Dutch Bloemenkar). These are the most used means for transport of plants and flowers back and forth from greenhouse to trading centre and with the often vastly stretching indoor areas of flower trade centres.

The cart as apart for transport by lorry, also used for indoor transportation by hand or towed in series by small a small tractor, should outside the flower trading centre buildings be provided with a so called key plate, alternatively denoted lock. The key plate is a rectangular boxed key mechanism serving to safeguard and identify the cart. It is thereto provided with a barcode and an RFID tag. The coding of the tag consists of a series of 26 numbers. It is the responsibility of the entrepreneur to have sufficient key plates in stock at the various, most visited places, since an in fact borrowed cart can not leave the trading premises without such key attached to the cart. Cart rental is hence in fact paid by rental of key plates from, directly or indirectly, the cart owners. A draw back of this known tracking system is the key plates may be handled carelessly, e.g. by transporters at returning a cart at the trade premises, in a manner that the key plate can no longer be found, while it is not returned to the owner, and should hence still be paid for. The same holds for carts that are for shorter or longer time left at a greenhouse for loading flowers to be traded. The relatively expensive key plate with cart may be left in a corner or become destroyed without the key being returned, and without any means of finding back such key plate. Hence the transporter entrepreneur may suffer endlessly ongoing costs while no functional profit may be gained.

In a project which the inventor denominated as “SmartLoc”, the name referring both to the lock and the location, a solution to the above problem has been devised which unlike presently known tracking systems, enables tracking of the lock in a versatile manner, both in the open and within buildings such as the greenhouses and trade centres, and even within separate chambers such as cooling cells. The lock or key plate, in fact the node included therein is thereto provided with an active tracking system, using a known per se LoRaWAN IoT (Internet of Things) solution as discussed above. Additionally the node is provided with a Wi-Fi protocol stack for assessing local Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi access points information. In accordance with a system and method utilising such node, location information is determined using either one or both of 16 assessed Wi-Fi and LoraWAN gateway information.

In such active node system the use of a battery is required. One solution in accordance with the invention to enable long battery life while still utilising a relatively small battery package involves a measure not to have the system in continuous operation, but rather to configure the device so that it is in most of the time in a so called sleep or iow power modus. For position determination vast numbers of solutions may be encountered. In the present solution however low energy usage is of such importance that a new, low energy solution has been developed.

The invention will now by way of example be explained in more detail with reference to figures: FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of locating system in accordance with the invention; FIGURE 2A and 2B respectively set forth a photographic and schematic representation of a LoRa node LN and it's components; FIGURE 3A and 3B respectively set forth a schematic representation of LoraWAN gateway LGW and a photographic representation of a small additional LoRaWAN gateway; FIGURE 4 is an example of a mapped representation of LoRaWAN gateways in a smart location network system in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 5 is an example of a client application in the form of an informative website page indicating the location of Lora Nodes LN or LoRa nodes provided Lock plates LPL as may be coupled to a device to be tracked; FIGURE 6 is a representation of a page in a client application listing the available Lora Nodes LN or devices containing the same of the client; FIGURE 7 is an example of a series of information as included in Payload in accordance with the present invention; FIGURE 8 is an example of a system's webpage indicating the gateways included in the closed network according to the SmartLoc location system of the present invention; FIGURE 9 is an example of a data set relating to a Wi-Fi scan as may be performed in accordance with the invention for the purpose of locating a Lora Node LN and it's coupled, to be located device.

In accordance with representation in FIG. 1, the design of the "SmartLoc" solution, is made up of several components: - a low-power, Lora node LN; - LoRaWan a gateway LWG - an Internet provider ITC, in this example KPN; - a (Web) Server S; - aclient application, such as a Website WS and / or App. MA The LORA node LN will at certain predetermined times, for example every hour awake from a sleep mode. For position determination, the node LN has a GPS module and / or a Wi-Fi protocol stack. Through the wireless protocol stack, first the surroundings are scanned for active AP's, i.e. Access Points. From this scan, the node selects three strongest APs. The Wi-Fi protocol stack is solely used for mapping of the Wi-Fi environment. There is no data transfer via the wireless protocol stack. When present, the GPS module is consulted a maximum number of times per day, for example, consulted twice a day and is allowed a maximum amount of time, for example three minutes, to determine a position. With such measures the energy consumption is restricted. The node will now transmit the data via LoRa. Subsequently, the node will, via the LoRaWAN gateway, communicate this information to the network. The gateway will via the Internet and a suitable [oT provider exchange the data. The data is then processed in a central (database) server, for example in accordance with the table in FIG. 9.

Received Wi-Fi scans will be compared with Wi-Fi data from the database.

From this comparison a position is determined.

When actual GPS data would have been received, such data can be leading for the position determination.

Simultaneously, the corresponding Wi-Fi scan data will be stored in the database.

The system has thus 5 been made self-learning.

In this project of application it is elected to is restricted to use "The Things Network" as loT service provider.

It here concerns a free/open network which, unlike paid commercial networks such as KPN networks, simply may be used without costs for an application of location determination according to the invention.

By installing loT Gateways at customers, the coverage and the capacity of the loT network will increase.

In accordance with the representation in Figures 2A and 2B, the Lora node LN, shown in Fig. 2B with a configuration identification Config ID, and in popular sense also referred to as the tracking device, consist of a small, in fact central, preferably RISC based microcontroller MUC with a Wi-Fi protocol stack, a GPS module GPS and of a LORA transceiver TRC.

In favourable embodiment, the microcontroller is equipped with a Wi-Fi protocol stack and holds sufficient I/O to couple a GPS module and a Lora transceiver.

In the in Fig. 2B provided example the Lora transceiver TRC is adapted to the European standard Lora 868 Mhz, and embodied here as a standard processor, which is at least compatible with the SX1276 standard, so that it is possible to exchange data via most of the EU loT providers, in other words is operable with the EU Lora channels at 868Mhz.

A tracker for world wide application will be embodied with communication facilities at multiple frequencies.

The central microcontroller in this example controls the Lora transceiver via 12C or SPI and is in accordance with preference also responsible for the Lora protocol, including the AES encryption.

The SmartLoc Node LN, i.e. the node LN according to the invention, for the latter uses the Arduino port of the LMIC framework (LoraWAN-in-C). The software that controls the LoraWan protocol is based on an open implementation of IBM.

The GPS module is provided with a processor which has GPS, Glonass, and Galileo support.

The GPS module is read via the serial port of the central processor.

The various components are compactly constructed, which makes them relatively simple in many applications such incorporation in a so called lock plate (Dutch: slotplaat) for flower carts.

For the eventual functionality the node LN is according to the invention provided with appropriate programming code lines, i.e. software, as may be readily set forth and applied a person skilled in the art, in other words with software which is specifically tailored to the requirements of a desired embodiment of the various modules.

In accordance with representation in, amongst others FIG. 1 and FIG. 3A, the LoRaWAN gateway LGW controls the data transfer to the Internet.

Such gateways may include stations located on masts for nationwide covering net work, by a communications provider CP.

Such stations may be supplemented with smaller, "proprietary" stations, of which, by way of example, an embodiment is represented in FIG. 3B.

These are lightweight, can in principle be applied for example with a suction cup on a window of a building.

The scope of such smaller channels is usually less, typically up to about 8 km.

In the embodiment of the present invention, use is made of the open and costless available "The Things Network". In this network a large number of gateways are available with which the node Lora LN according to the invention might connect.

The present invention preferably extensively uses the possibility adding self-owned gateways LGW to the network.

In accordance with the invention this possibility is used to install gateways at or close to own, proprietary or frequently visited or otherwise strategic locations.

The sign of the Lora node LN to the gateway LGW may in this manner additionally be used to estimate the target position e.g. the lock plate in a global manner in cases that GPS might not be available, such as is often the case within a building.

Figure 4 could form an example of such an additional coverage, by means of "own", or at least additional installations of small Lora stations LGW.

Such, also denoted as "small" gateways, are relatively inexpensively available in the order of around € 300, and may be connected to the internet via a network, UTP cable or a wireless Wi-Fi connection.

The Smart Loc tracking or localization method further departs from a hybrid system, in which also the Wi-Fi environment is used as a location feature.

Wi-Fi is however expressly not used for communication with the Internet and also there is no communicating with the wireless network.

Rather, in the localization method according to the invention, a scan is made of the available Wi-Fi access points, of the strongest three of which the MAC address is stored together with the measure of the bond or signal strength, in other words of the so called RSSI.

If necessary, the differences in bond strength are also used to identify different locations within a building.

The GPS is in the method according to the invention consulted as little as possible. Where a valid GPS position is determined, the corresponding Wi-Fi scan is stored in the server database. With this, the system is self-learning and strategic locations within buildings are recorded in the database with associated Wi-Fi information.

In the method according to the present invention, when needed, use is made of the available position determination within LoraWan, which is based on the known locations of the in fact to be nominated "large" gateway stations, Because several stations may receive the signal from a node LN a rough position determination is possible on the basis thereof. Depending on the number of gateways LGW, regardless of whether these belong to the LoraWan or to the self-installed, say small stations that receive the node LN, a more accurate position determination within the method according to the invention has been enabled. The method according to the invention, and thus the SmartLoc System, uses the RSS| information of the gateway stations to calculate a weighted average position if necessary. This is in the set-up of the SmartLoc method and the SmartLoc system, the preferably last preferred method to opt for in determining position information. This position determination can in doing so, in the present method and by the system be classified as to be inaccurate for location dependent or customer-specific billing of a customer for the apparent holding of a with the node LN linked object such as, for example, a flower cart. This situation will generally be prevented by locating additional gateways at strategic locations at setting up a ‘closed network’, i.e. a network specific for SmartLoc.

It is noted that more expensive versions of the SmartLoc nodes LN may use a Bluetooth facility provided thereon. In a mode BLE for short-range communication a option is acknowledged to improve positioning. In doing so, use is made of the fact that, well-known Bluetooth nodes with known ID and position may placed at predetermined locations, i.e. locations of which the validity is known with certainty, .

The SmartLoc, at least Lora node LN according to the invention further allows use of a so-called 'Deep Sleep' mode, so that the node LN, in accordance with the invention, consumes extremely little energy. Only a necessary wake-up timer and some RAM of the real-time counter (RTC) in the module is used. Doing so allows the node LN to return to it's run context, i.e. to find the same when it wakes up, or to allow continuation as from the point where it was before falling or going "asleep".

In the method according to the invention, the communication through the LoRaWan is determined by the Lora standard. The payload that is sent, is however minimized and therefore customized for SmartLoc system: this may depend on the wishes of the customer or the application take several forms. For instance, a 12-byte version, of which 8 bytes of so-called Lat/Lon and 4 bytes for the battery voltage; a 13-byte version, of which 8 bytes of Lat/Lon and 4 bytes for the battery voltage and 1 byte which indicates whether there was a GPS fix; a 50 bytes version with 5x 10 bytes (= 6 bytes Wi-Fi MAC address + 4 bytes RSS|). In this version incidentally, in conformance with a further possible embodiment, there is no possibility whatsoever towards GPS information. A fourth example relates to an embodiment having 43 bytes, including 8 bytes of Lat/Lon, 4 bytes battery voltage, 1 byte GPS status, and 3x 10 bytes of Wi-Fi information. A fifth embodiment is also 43 bytes in accordance with version 4, but with redefined coding of battery voltage.

The thus extracted information is in accordance with the invention, incorporated in a dedicated server S, in the form of a database. At incorporation, inter alia, the received wireless information is matched with Wi-Fi information marked as known in the database. Another aspect of the locating method according to the invention is that the data server is provided with a self-learning algorithm for locating and establishing of Wi-Fi access locations. With that, the algorithm contains logic which ensures that there is virtually no information stored double. It is also provided, that an entry in the database is marked in a manner allowing recognition of whether the Wi-Fi location entry has been obtained by the self-learning or by manual input into the system. The manually input locations are preferred here over a learned matched Wi-Fi location. Yet, it appears in practice that a very high and commercially useful degree of reliability is obtained. This certainty is in accordance with a further elaboration of the method according to the invention increased even more through a further part of the algorithm that performs a match with customer data known in the database. This additional match is determined by comparing the position of the node with the customer's position. At such, the nearest customer is determined, and subsequently whether the position thereof is within a predetermined meaningful distance. FIG. 5 is an example of an information page out of the SmartLoc Localisation System SL, such as has been made available to a flower transportation business, provisional customer number 52633, and of which by way of trial, three of the transport carts under the responsibility of the business are equipped with a lock plate LN according to the invention. The figure illustrates that the three carts on certain date and time were located at two different locations represented by name. If necessary, an additional LoRaWAN gateway is installed at or near the location of a regular customer to accommodate the "SmartLoc" nodes that will be around there. These lock plates can be followed via a simple web interface, and there will be a daily assessment of where or with whom these lock plates are. If a lock-plate provided object such as a flower cart is in between fixed, i.e. known locations, a relatively coarse location assessment is provided if so desired, whether or not on a separate page, of objects that are " likely in transport". In accordance with the representation in FIG. 6, the system provides, in yet another page, an overview of nodes signed in at a network that is in this case called "The Things Network", in this example a number of 10 nodes. At predetermined times, for example every hour, the SmartLoc node LN will attempt to transmit its data to the loT network. In the payload, that is to say, in the transmitted data, there is present, as for example represented in FIG. 7, in succession, the GPS position, 3 Wi-Fi MAC addresses and an indication of the battery voltage.

Yet another page of the system according to the invention provides, as shown in FIG. 8, the locations of additionally issued "Internet of things (loT)" Gateway stations LGW, here in a number of seven. So as to increase the coverage of the existing network these are posted at places strategic to application by a customer.

For the management of the foregoing, a server is arranged on a specific network, in this example the 'lohman-solutions.com' network, which comprises a database such as an SQL database, a Web site, a MQTT connector, for example Python, and a data processor module for executing analysis. The database maintains a number of tables, each with multiple of specific information for each component of the SmartLoc system, such as as a customer table, a message table, a SmartLoc nodes LN table, a Wi-Fi Location Table, and a results table. The desired data may be retrieved from the database with appropriate queries. The following query is an example of how it is determined how many loc-plates or nodes are present at a certain location for each customer:

SELECT timestamp, at_customer, description, b.customer_id, count(a.at_customer) FROM smartplate.results a, smartplate.plates b, smartplate.customers c WHERE a.plate_id=b.plate_id AND c.customer_id=a.at customer AND timestamp = (select max(timestamp) FROM smartplate.results) AND a.at_distance <500 GROUP BY b.customer_id, at_customer; The website uses, in a potential, here elected embodiment, a Windows 2012 Server with IIS. For displaying of a map with information use is made of an open source library, which in the present case is written in the JavaScript language. The website also uses the PHP language, which works at the "server side", and is used to retrieve results from the SQL database. Because the results are retrieved at the server-side, database access by the client is not required. A database with such a design is hence not "directly" on the Internet. The web site in the embodiment according to the invention requires that for users, inter alia authentication is present, for a robust application of the present SmartLoc location system SL.

The MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) connector, a standardised machine to machine (M2M) data transfer protocol, provides the coupling or link with the The Things Network. Through a Python script, a call back is obtained through the MQTT framework with new data from the SmartLoc Nodes involved. With this Python script, in the on_message handler, the data of a SmartLoc Node may be stored in the database.

The data processor is a calculation module which is every day at one or more predetermined times, e.g., at 23:00 hour, initiated by a so-called Task Scheduler. From the received messages it is derived where SmartLoc Nodes are located. For this purpose, the following algorithm is used: - Is the GPS data recently -> GPS position leading -> Position 1 - Is there a Wi-Fi scan -> compare with Wi-Fi data in the database -> Position 2 - Position of the host gateways -> Weighted position in dependence of the received signal strength of the SmartLoc node -> position 3 In order of importance, and availability position 1, position 2 and position 3, respectively, will be used for determination of the SmartLoc node SL. This algorithm,

and these positions, as previously discussed, may be extended with reference to a, for example at a location disposed Bluetooth element and the scanning thereof.

In the particular case where both a first position and a Wi-Fi Scan is available, the database will be tested to see if there is already a Wi-Fi scan present for this position.

If not, then position 1 with associated Wi-Fi scan is added to the database.

The present invention, apart from what has been described above, also relates to all details in the figures, at least for as far as these are directly and unambiguously retrievable by a skilled person, and to everything that is described in the following set of claims, as well in the following set of clauses: 1 Method for tracking an object using LoRa radio transmission, in which an object is provided with a device provided with a LoRa node, a GPS module and/or electronic means for radio gateway identification, in which the object is programmed to periodically leave a stand by mode for determining and transmitting its position to a network relaying the position information to a position registering computer S. 2 Method in accordance with clause 1, in which positional information is further assessed on the basis of characteristic Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi access points information scanned and relayed by said LoRa node, 3 Method according to clause 2, in which the positional information is assessed by establishing solely the MAC of the Wi-Fi Access points detected, in particular that of the strongest access point, more in particular excluding other access point information. 4 Method in accordance with clause 1 in which additional LoRa gateways are located in area's to be covered for location determination. 5 Method in accordance with the preceding clause, in which a location is determined on the basis of a weighed mean position, using gateway information of multiple gateways. 6 Method in accordance with clause 2, in which the Wi-Fi information of multiple access points is scanned and collected for determining a node location. 7 Method in accordance with clause 2, in which the method features a self learning algorithm for registering Wi-Fi access points in relation to one of GPS or customer provided location information.

8 Method in accordance with clause 1, in which location information is determined on the basis of LoRa Gateway information if no GPS and no Wi-Fi information is collected. 9 Locating system using long range (LoRa) wide area network (WAN) facility, involving a Lora node, a LoraWAN gateway, an internet provider, a webserver and a client application such as app or website, in which the node is provided with both a GPS module and a Wi-Fi protocol stack, in which node the GPS module is consulted a limited number of times per day, in every case during a limited amount of time, and in which the Wi-Fi protocol stack is configured for scanning the Wi-Fi surroundings and assessing a limited number of strongest Wi-Fi access points (AP). 10 System according to clause 9, in which the node despatches consultation and assessment data via LoRa. 11 System according to clause 10, in which the node sets the data available to a network via the LoRaWAN gateway. 12 System according to clause 11, in which the gateway exchanges the data with an Internet of Things provider. 13 System in accordance with any of the preceding system clauses 8 to 12 in which the consultation and assessment data are recorded on a central database server. 14 System in accordance with any of the preceding system clauses, in which the data are utilised for determining the position of the node. 15 Long range radio based tracking node LN provided with a GPS receiving module, a microcontroller and a transceiver module for Long range radio transmission module. 16 Node in accordance with clause 15, provided with a Wi-Fi protocol stack.

Claims (16)

CONCLUSIONS A method of tracking an object by means of radio transmission, wherein an object is provided with a device including a LoRa node, a GPS module and / or electronic means for identifying a radio gateway, the device being programmed to periodically exiting a stand by mode for determining and transmitting its position on a network, which forwards the position information to a position recording computer S. The method of claim 1, wherein position information is further determined from typical Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi access point information, scanned and forwarded by said LoRa node Method according to claim 2, wherein the position information is determined by determining only the MAC of detected Wi-Fi access points, in particular identifying that of the strongest access point, in particular excluding other information from the access points. The method of claim 1, wherein additional LoRa gateways are placed in an area to be covered for location determination. The method of the preceding claim, wherein a location is determined based on a weighted average position, using gateway data from multiple gateways. The method of claim 2, wherein the Wi-Fi data from multiple access points is scanned and collected to determine node location. The method of claim 2, wherein the method includes a self-learning algorithm for registering Wi-Fi access points with respect to one of GPS and location data provided by a customer. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information is determined based on LoRa Gateway data if no GPS and no Wi-Fi information is collected. Locating system using long distance (LoRa) wide area network (WAN) facility, comprising a LoRa node, a LoRaWAN gateway, an internet provider, a web server and a client application, such as an app or website, wherein the node is provided with both a GPS module and a wireless, so-called Wi-Fi protocol stack, where the node the GPS module is consulted preferably a limited number of times per day, each time for a limited time, where the Wi-Fi protocol stack is configured for scanning of the Wi-Fi environment and determining a limited number of the strongest Wi-Fi access points (AP). The system of claim 9, wherein the node outputs query and evaluation data via LoRa. The one of claims 9 and 10, wherein the node makes the data available to a network through the gateway LoRaWAN. System according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the gateway exchanges the data with a provider of Internet of Things. System according to any one of the preceding system claims 8-12, wherein the query and determination data are included in a central database server. A system according to any one of the preceding system claims, wherein the data is used to determine in particular centrally the position of the node. 15. Long range radio (LoRa) based tracking node LN, equipped with a GPS receiver module, a microcontroller and a transceiver module for long range radio transmission. Node according to claim 15, provided with a Wi-Fi protocol stack.