WO2015104603A2

WO2015104603A2 - Lighting commissioning system using position sensitive detectors

Info

Publication number: WO2015104603A2
Application number: PCT/IB2014/066938
Authority: WO
Inventors: Harry Broers; Tommaso Gritti; Gianluca Monaci
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Priority date: 2014-01-07
Filing date: 2014-12-16
Publication date: 2015-07-16
Also published as: WO2015104603A3

Abstract

The invention directed to inventive methods and apparatus for commissioning of luminaires in a lighting network. In particular, topologic information is automatically generated by position sensitive detectors detecting ground footprints generated by each of the individual luminaires of the network. The detection results are subsequently combined to determine the relative positions of the position sensitive detectors and the luminaires.

Description

Lighting commissioning system using position sensitive detectors

[0001] The present invention is directed generally to lighting control of lighting networks with sensing and communication capabilities. More particularly, various inventive methods and apparatus disclosed herein relate to the configuration of a lighting system in order to setup specific functionalities such as grouping luminaires together so that they may be controlled by the same actuator. This setup process is referred to herein as "commissioning."

[0002] The complexity and size of lighting systems is increasing, as well as the intelligence and the functionalities that are provided with these systems. By way of example, Koninklijke Philips NV (herein after "Philips") has been developing products and concepts of smart and efficient lighting systems. One such innovation is the LumiMotion sensor system, which includes a camera and a processing unit to detect the presence of a person close to the light source and turn on the luminaire to which it is connected, which is normally dimmed. The combination of sensing and communication capabilities makes a lighting system a smart sensor network that can be exploited to improve the overall system performance.

[0003] Using the current practice and the available tools, commissioning is already very cumbersome. Commissioning will become even more complex and time consuming in the next generation lighting systems, where high level meta-information about the luminaires will be required to provide advanced functionalities and services. Such advanced functionality may include varying of on and off times, varying brightness, narrowing/broadening of the light beam, flashing of lights to indicate a dangerous situation, and even changing the wavelength of light emitted when conditions warrant it (such as fog).

[0004] For outdoor, as well as for indoor lighting systems, the most relevant information required for commissioning is the luminaire's position and information about the system configuration and usage (e.g., groups of neighboring lights that are to be controlled by the same actuator, type of usage to control illumination type, etc.). Methods exist to localize elements of a lighting infrastructure on a map. For example, in WO- 2006095317 a method is proposed for commissioning wireless network devices and localizing them in a building map using triangulation with respect to reference nodes. In another example, WO-2010100586, a method is proposed for commission of a lighting network using information of presence detection sensors of the luminaire and neighboring luminaires.

[0005] Methods also exist to localize luminaires on a map for commissioning purposes. One example is to use GPS-coordinates of luminaires to automatically derive the topology of the lighting infrastructure. However, GPS-coordinates do not provide the orientation of the luminaire. Also, the measurement accuracy is not sufficient to correctly distinguish between two luminaires mounted on the same pole.

[0006] With the intelligence and sensing functionalities provided by lighting systems increasing, the location of the sensing information extracted by the lighting system (e.g., which sensors are in the same street, which ones are in park, in a residential area, close to an entrance of a shopping mall etc.) will become increasingly important. Clearly, the detailed knowledge of where the data is captured makes it much more useful and powerful. Data sensed by such networked lighting systems can provide useful information (e.g., vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns) to both public and private entities. Proper commissioning of luminaires is necessary to obtain such data. With existing solutions it is difficult to automatically retrieve the location and orientation of luminaires and sensors to enable an automatic commissioning stage. In most cases the results of automatic commissioning has to be manually modified.

[0007] With this invention a method is proposed to automatically associate topologic information to a lighting infrastructure system by determining orientation and relative location of the infrastructure's luminaires to each other. By retrieving and elaborating this into more detailed topologic information, the current invention improves the (automatic) commissioning of luminaires and thereby reduces the installation effort.

[0008] As shall be described below, various embodiments of the invention do not require the availability of GPS coordinates of the luminaires. That is, the invention, using position sensitive detectors used in conjunction with the luminaires, measures and localizes the light footprints caused by individual luminaires, to derive the topology of the lighting network infrastructure. As used herein, the term position sensitive detectors includes a variety of camera type devices to include CCD cameras, CMOS cameras, and range cameras (i.e., sensor devices used for producing range images ~ e.g., time of flight cameras, structured light cameras, stereo cameras, etc.). If GPS information is not available, the derived topology is not in absolute geographical coordinates, but is relative to a reference point (e.g., relative to an arbitrarily chosen one of the network's luminaires). In this case, the invention would determine for each luminaire which other luminaire(s) are its neighbors and in which direction. However, absent an identification of at least one of the luminaires (via GPS or other identification means), the invention would not be able to determine in absolute terms where the luminaires are located.

[0009] According to one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for obtaining topologic information of a networked lighting infrastructure in which luminaires are capable of being individually controlled. The infrastructure further includes one or more position sensitive detectors. The method comprises the steps of: a) Turning off all luminaires of the lighting network;

b) turning on a single luminaire of the lighting network;

c) observing the resulting light footprint with at least one position sensitive detector;

d) storing the relative position of the footprint with respect to the detector; e) switching off the luminaire;

f) repeat steps b-e for each luminaire in the network; and, g) after having switched on every luminaire, aggregate the position sensitive detector information to extract the topology of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

[0010] The present disclosure is directed to inventive methods and apparatus for commissioning of luminaires in a lighting network. An exemplary lighting network (LN) includes an array of light units or luminaries and position sensitive detectors. In addition, the network may include other types of sensors (e.g., motion detectors, photometers, etc.) and other integrated or connected electrical devices. Further, the network would contain a central management system (CMS) or controller, a wired/wireless network, including software, firmware, for monitoring and managing the LN, as well as information management via the LN. The LN comprises multiple light units that may operate mainly in an independent mode where dimming, sensing, communication, and control processes take place between the various light units. Further communication and control may be provided between the light units and a CMS.

[0011] In operation, and once the luminaires have been commissioned, the central management system (CMS) is operable to: receive and process light unit information, in particular, sensor unit data, determine a lighting strategy (e.g., dimming/illumination requirements), and in particular, dynamically adapting the detection threshold settings of a respective light unit's sensor based on neighboring light units illumination status; determine/update the lighting strategy; coordinate the operation of the identified lighting units as a function of the lighting strategy, and send operation instructions to one more of light units to direct the identified light units to operate in accordance with the operation.

[0012] The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will become further apparent from the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The detailed description and drawings are merely illustrative of the invention, rather than limiting the scope of the invention being defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

[0013] The following are descriptions of illustrative embodiments that when taken in conjunction with the following drawings will demonstrate the above noted features and advantages, as well as further ones. In the following description, for purposes of explanation rather than limitation, illustrative details are set forth such as architecture, interfaces, techniques, element attributes, etc. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments that depart from these details would still be understood to be within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, for the purpose of clarity, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, tools, techniques, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present system. It should be expressly understood that the drawings are included for illustrative purposes and do not represent the scope of the present system. In the accompanying drawings, like reference numbers in different drawings may designate similar elements. Also, the drawing figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. [0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a lighting network (LN) in accordance with embodiments of the present system.

[0015] FIG. 2a is an observed field of view of a camera detector mounted in pole and directed to the ground with two luminaires turned on.

[0016] FIG. 2b is a camera view analogous to that of Fig. 2a in which all luminaires are turned off.

[0017] FIG. 2c is a camera view analogous to that of Fig. 2a in which a single luminaire is turned on at distant range.

[0018] FIG. 2d is a camera view analogous to that of Fig. 2a in which a single luminaire is turned on at close range.

[0019] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the current invention in which the footprint of a distant light source is detected.

[0020] FIG. 4 is a flowchart which illustrates an embodiment of the invention.

[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a lighting network (LN) 100, comprising a controller or central management system (CMS) 102, in accordance with embodiments of the present system. Although FIG. 1 shows the elements of the lighting network (LN) 100 as discrete elements, it is noted that two or more of the elements may be integrated into one device. The lighting network (LN) 100 includes a plurality of units or electrical devices 106-1 through 106-N (generally 106). As illustrated, these units comprise illumination sources 107-1 through 107-N, a plurality of controllers 105-1 through 105-N, a plurality of transmission/receive (TX/Rx) units 109-1 through 109-N, a plurality of sensors 110-1 through 110-N and a network/communication link 108 which, in accordance with embodiments of the present system, may operably couple two or more of the elements of the present system. It is understood that one or more position sensitive detectors are included in the depicted sensors 110-X (as well as other types of sensors to include motion detectors and photometers). Further it should be noted that individual units 106 may not necessarily contain both an illumination source 107 and a sensor 110. Thus, by way of example, a position sensitive detector is not necessarily co-located with an illumination source.

[0022] The CMS 102 may include one or more processors which may control the overall operation of the lighting network (LN) 100. The CMS 102 may also be "distributed" (e.g., de-centralized in-network processing or hierarchical system in which each segment controller controls a sub-set of light poles). The CMS 102 may also access to other information about the system and the environment, such as date/time of the day, historic detection data, condition of the infrastructure etc. Accordingly, the CMS 102 may communicate with, the units 106, the sensors 110, to send and/or receive (via Tx/Rx units 109) various information in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

[0023] The CMS 102 may include a plurality of processors which may be located locally or remotely from each other and may communicate with each other via the network 108. The network 108 may include one or more networks and may enable communication between one or more of the CMS 102, the units 106, and the sensors 110, using any suitable transmission scheme such as a wired and/or wireless communication schemes. Accordingly, the network 108 may include one or more networks such as a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a telephony network, (e.g., 3G, a 4G, etc., code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile (GSM) network, a plain old telephone service (POTs) network), a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, a wireless fidelity (WiFi™) network, a Bluetooth™ network, a proprietary network, the Internet, etc.

[0024] The units 106 may include one or more illumination sources 107 such as lamps (e.g., a gas lamp, etc.), light emitting diodes (LEDs), incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, etc., and may be controlled by the controller 105. The illumination sources may be configured in a matrix (e.g., a 10x10 matrix of illumination sources) in which illumination characteristics such as illumination pattern, intensity, spectrum (e.g., hue, color, etc.), polarization, frequency, etc., from one or more of the plurality of illumination sources and/or light pattern for a plurality of illumination sources, may be actively controlled by the system. As discussed herein the collective illumination sources for a unit 106 shall be referred to as being a luminaire.

[0025] The current invention relates to the use of position sensitive detectors in the detection of luminaires to improve commissioning of an intelligent lighting system as described above. For the sake of simplicity, the invention will now be described with respect to a system comprising two luminaires, each with a LumiMotion module installed. In the example depicted in Figs. 2a-2d, camera-based detection is being employed as the position sensitive detection apparatus. As illustrated, the lighting network is being employed in an indoor, warehouse space. The invention is not so limited as the invention and the discussion below is applicable for other types of position sensitive detectors as well as for outdoor environments as well (e.g., parks, streets, parking lots, etc.). [0026] With a camera-based detector it is possible to locate the light footprint created on the ground plane by each luminaire. Figure 2a contains the observed field of view of a LumiMotion camera detector mounted on a pole 200 and directed to the ground. As depicted, there are two light footprints present: one footprint 210 caused by a luminaire mounted at pole 200 (In this example the luminaire contains both a first light source and a camera detector); and another footprint 220 caused by a second light source at pole located within an observable range of the camera-based detector (e.g., at a 20 meter distance). As illustrated in Fig. 2b, when all luminaires are turned off, the footprints coming from the lighting network will disappear and only footprints caused by ambient illumination will remain. If then, a single luminaire that is outside the observable range of the camera-based detector is turned on, no visible change will be detected by the detector. However, when a luminaire within a distant observable range is turned on, the resulting projected footprint 220 will be clearly visible (as illustrated in Fig. 2c).

[0027] Fig. 3 is a prospective drawing that is analogous to Fig. 2c. As in Fig. 2c, pole 200 is equipped with a Luminaire 310 light source and a position sensitive detector 320 having a field of view 340. Also depicted is a second pole 210, having its own luminaire light source 330. When all lights observable by the position sensitive detector 320 are turned off except for light source 330, the resulting footprint 220 is readily detectable by detector 320. In this manner the position sensitive detector 320 at pole 200 can extract the relative position between poll 200 and luminaire 330. [0028] Fig. 4 is a flowchart which illustrates an embodiment of the invention by which topologic information of a network lighting infrastructure is derived. As depicted at step 420 of the figure, all of the luminaire lights in the network are first turned off. Then only one of the lights is turned on (step 430). Each detector that observes the resulting light source footprint and then creates a record of the footprint's position relative to the detector (step 440). After a fixed period of time the current light source is turned off (step 450). The process then continues until each of the lights in the system has been turned on once (step 460), subsequent to which, each of the detectors transmits its recorded data to the CMS (step 470). The CMS subsequently compiles the data to determine the topology of the luminaires and sensors of the lighting infrastructure.

[0029] It should be noted that not all details relative to various embodiments used in implementing the present invention have been illustrated in Fig. 4. By way of example, each luminaire may be assigned an index number or identification number by the CMS, which is communicated to the detectors at the time that the luminaire is turned on in step 430. In this manner the detector's observation data is identified to a particular luminaire for later analysis by the CMS. Further, the various light functions (e.g., turning off all, turning on one at a time, determining when all light sources have been utilized at step 460, etc.) are under the control of the CMS. Still further, while Fig. 4 depicts detectors recording data (step 440) for subsequent transmission to the CMS (step 470), in alternative embodiments one or more detectors may communicate their observations in real-time to the CMS, thereby foregoing the need for a detector saving function or for an index/identification number to be transmitted by the CMS.

[0030] Returning to Fig. Id, this figure illustrates the situation where only the light source mounted at pole 200 is turned on and the position sensitive detector is mounted on the same pole. Consequently, the position of the footprint gives information about the mounting position and orientation of the detector in relation to this light source. At the end of the procedure for this simple system, position sensitive detector 320 knows that it is co- located with Luminaire 310 (which in this case could have been inferred also using GPS coordinates of luminaire and sensor) and that Luminaire 330 is located far away, on the right of its field of view.

[0031] It should be noted that this information cannot be obtained using GPS information alone, because i) it would not provide the relative orientation between position sensitive detectors and luminaires and ii) it cannot provide information of whether a luminaire is visible by a detector or not (e.g., line of sight between neighboring sensors and luminaires can be obstructed by trees, buildings etc.). Repeating this procedure for each luminaire delivers information associated with the relative positions and orientation of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors which can be easily retrieved, processed and associated to the lighting infrastructure in order to commission the system. In additional embodiments of the invention, one or more position sensitive detection units are equipped with an electronic compass (e.g., a MEMS compass) to enable providing a magnetic azimuth with respect to one or more observed luminaires.

[0032] In various embodiments of the invention, most position sensitive detectors are mounted together with the luminaire on a pole. Alternative embodiments permit one or more detectors not being co-located at the pole. In further embodiments, GPS -coordinates are available for at least one sensor. Consequently, the method of the invention can be used to distinguish between luminaires on one pole or to locate other luminaires/sensors not having GPS-coordinates.

[0033] In still further embodiments, the invention can be used to detect luminaire failures. The sensor can check if a projected footprint is absent at the location determined by extracted topology from GPS coordinates.

[0034] In yet further embodiments, Coded Light illumination can be used. That is, instead of turning on and off the luminaires in the system, the same type of commissioning can be obtained by implementing Coded Light illumination of luminaire light sources in combination with position sensitive Coded Light detection. The actual coding of such illumination may be completely controlled by the CMS or alternatively, be an intrinsic unique feature of individual lights that is merely activated by the CMS. [0035] In one such Coded Light embodiment, all light may remain on while the CMS triggers a coded light illumination from a luminaire that is then detected by at least one position sensitive Coded Light detector. Such Coded Light may be providing a flashing pattern of light and/or providing a light of a different color. This process would be repeated for all network light sources when commissioning of the network is first performed. Further, this Coded Light detection process may be utilized when one or more additional light sources are being added to a network whose topology has been previously determined. In which case, only those new light sources need provide a Coded Light so that they can then be detected and incorporated into the network topology.

[0036] While several inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for obtaining topologic information of a networked lighting infrastructure in which luminaires are capable of being individually controlled, the networked lighting infrastructure comprises one or more position sensitive detectors; the method comprising the steps of:

a) turning off all luminaires of the lighting network;

b) turning on a single luminaire of the lighting network;

d) storing the relative position of the footprint with respect to the position sensitive detector;

e) switching off the luminaire;

f) repeating steps b-e for each luminaire in the network; and, g) after having switched on every luminaire, aggregating the position sensitive detector information to extract the topology of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the topology information comprises determining relative positions of luminaires to the at least one position sensitive detector.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the position sensitive detectors has an electronic compass and the storing step comprises determining a magnetic azimuth from the position sensitive detector to the luminaire.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the topology information further comprises using GPS information in conjunction with determined relative positions to determine GPS coordinates of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein GPS information of less than 3 position sensitive detectors is used to determine GPS coordinates of the luminaires and sensors of the lighting infrastructure.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the turning on step results in at least one luminaire generating a Coded Light signal.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the position sensitive detectors comprises a memory unit and said storing step comprises storing the relative position in the memory unit.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the said storing step comprises communicating in realtime the relative position determined by at least one of the position sensitive detectors to a central data base.

9. A method for obtaining topologic information of a networked lighting infrastructure in which luminaires are capable of being individually controlled, the networked lighting infrastructure comprises one or more position sensitive detectors; the method comprising the steps of:

a) initiating a Coded Light signal from a plurality of luminaires of the lighting network;

b) observing the resulting light footprints with at least one position sensitive detector;

c) storing the relative positions of the footprints with respect to the position sensitive detector;

d) aggregating the sensor information to extract the topology of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

10. The method of claim 9 whereby only one luminaire is initiated at a time.

11. The method of claim 9 whereby the footprint associated with each one of the luminaires in the network is observed.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the topology of the lighting structure has previously been determined, and the plurality of luminaires whose footprints are being observed relate to luminaires that are being added to the network.

13. A system for determining the topology of a lighting network, comprising:

- a plurality of electrical units 106, each comprising a luminaire 107 and a controller 105;

- a plurality of position sensitive detectors 110, at least one of which having a memory device; and,

- a central management system (CMS) 102 in communication with each of said plurality of electrical units 106, and with each of said plurality of position sensitive detectors 110;

wherein the CMS is capable of activating each of the luminaires, one at a time, and the relative position of the luminaire' s resulting light footprint is observed and stored in the memory device of the at least one position sensitive detector; and upon completion of each of the luminaires being activated, communicating the stored relative position data to the CMS.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the CMS comprises one or more processors for aggregating the relative position data and extracting the topology of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the CMS comprises:

- one or more processors for aggregating the relative position data; and,

- a communication means for communicating with an off-site processor;

wherein the off-site processor extracts the topology of the luminaires and position sensitive detectors of the lighting infrastructure.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising a GPS determining means for providing GPS information as to the location of at least one of the plurality of position sensitive detectors.

17. The system of claim 14 further comprising a GPS determining means for providing GPS information as to the location of at least one of the plurality of luminaires.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the luminaires is capable of emitting a Coded Light signal.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein each of the position sensitive detectors is capable of observing the Coded Light signal.

20. A system for determining the topology of a lighting network, comprising:

- a plurality of position sensitive detectors 110; and, - a central management system (CMS) 102 in communication with each of said plurality of light units 106, and with each of said plurality of position sensitive detectors 110; wherein the CMS is capable of activating each of the luminaires, one at a time, and the relative position of the luminaire's resulting light footprint is observed and its relative position determined by at least one of the position sensitive detectors; and said relative position is communicated in real-time to the CMS.