BLE Asset Tracking System with Cloud Workflow Engine
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing asset management systems face challenges with continuous instantaneous access to tracked states, real-time data access, interference, scalability, physical constraints, and high power consumption, particularly with WiFi and RFID technologies, which are not feasible for battery-powered devices and have range limitations.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system that includes leaf node devices with associated sensor tags, a processing engine on a cloud server, and gateway nodes for data collection, enabling real-time location and condition monitoring of assets with low power consumption and scalable infrastructure, using a tiered data pipeline for efficient data processing and communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If WiFi technology is used for asset tracking, then data communication capability is improved, but power consumption increases making battery-powered devices infeasible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from WiFi to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, fundamentally changing the communication parameter to achieve low power consumption while maintaining data communication capability. BLE enables battery-powered asset tags to operate for extended periods, resolving the contradiction between communication capability and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the WiFi communication mechanism with BLE technology, substituting a high-power communication system with a low-power alternative that achieves the same asset tracking function while enabling battery operation.
2Device complexity
If RFID technology is used for asset tracking, then system simplicity is improved, but range is limited requiring reader proximity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces cloud-based servers and mobile devices as intermediaries between asset tags and users. The asset tags communicate wirelessly via BLE to mobile devices or fixed readers, which then relay information through cloud infrastructure, extending the effective tracking range beyond direct reader proximity while maintaining system simplicity.
3Ease of operation
If centralized asset management is implemented, then control capability is improved, but scalability is limited when managing millions of assets
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the asset management system into distributed components: asset tags with unique identifiers, mobile devices for local interaction, fixed readers for zone monitoring, and cloud servers for centralized management. This segmentation enables the system to scale to millions of assets while maintaining centralized control capability through the cloud infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the cloud computing dimension to the asset management architecture, moving from local device management to cloud-based centralized management. This dimensional change enables scalable handling of millions of assets while preserving ease of operation through web-based interfaces and mobile applications.
4Loss of information
If continuous real-time monitoring is implemented, then data availability is improved, but interference increases in the communication system
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic advertising and scanning cycles in the BLE communication protocol, where asset tags transmit their presence and status at regular intervals rather than continuously. This periodic action reduces communication interference while maintaining sufficient data availability for real-time asset tracking and monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for managing an industrial workflow including a plurality of asset tags, each tag associated with a corresponding asset, and a plurality of point of interest reader nodes, each reader node including at least one BLE radio in communication with a subset of the plurality of asset tags and a communications manager in communication with at least one cloud server. The system further includes a cloud server having a location services module, a process and workflow editor configured to enable a user to access a plurality of rules in a process flow library regarding how different types of assets are expected to move through a facility, and a real-time compute engine configured to generate a sequence of events for an asset and interpret the process and workflow plan to determine whether a trigger event has occurred.