Calibrated Door Sensor for Accurate Inventory Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing door monitoring systems for enclosures, such as gas cylinder cages, fail to accurately track door openings due to lack of calibration, leading to inaccurate inventory management and potential theft, especially in outdoor settings where doors may move due to wind or other factors, resulting in false counts.
Innovation Solution
An electro-mechanical adjustable monitoring system with a sensor device that can be calibrated to detect door openings to a specific position, allowing for accurate tracking of door events and inventory management, using a sensor device with an arm that slides against the door to trigger a switch event when the door reaches the calibrated open position, and a remote telemetry system to transmit data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a door monitoring system is installed to track door openings, then inventory management is improved, but false counts occur due to door movement from wind or other factors
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter being monitored from simple door opening/closing states to specific door position angles. By calibrating the sensor to detect only door openings beyond a predetermined angle threshold, the system distinguishes between significant openings (indicating item removal) and minor movements (caused by wind), thereby reducing false counts while maintaining accurate inventory tracking.
2Productivity
If a sensor device is used to detect door openings, then door events are tracked, but the system cannot distinguish between partial openings and full openings
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor device is calibrated to monitor a specific parameter - the door's angular position - and set a threshold (predetermined angle) that distinguishes between partial openings (below threshold) and full openings (above threshold). This parameter-based differentiation enables the system to accurately track only those door events that result in item removal, improving both inventory tracking efficiency and measurement precision.
3Ease of operation
If the door is allowed to open to a fully opened position, then complete access is provided, but the sensor may detect unnecessary opening events
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains full door accessibility by allowing the door to open to any position, but improves reliability by changing the detection parameter from any door movement to door openings exceeding a predetermined angle. This ensures that only door events representing actual access for item removal are detected and recorded, filtering out spurious events while preserving complete operational access.
Data Source
AI summary
A method to automatically audit the number of units within an enclosure having at least one door including receiving from a remote telemetry device data indicating the number of times within a predetermined period of time a door has been opened to a predetermined open position relative to the enclosure, the predetermined open position of the door being specifically calibrated by a sensor device being mechanically set when the sensor device is installed on the enclosure proximal to the door as a position of the door between a closed position and a more fully opened position beyond the predetermined open position, to generate a door opening count, the remote telemetry device includes a sensor configured to be adjustably calibrated to sense when the door is at the predetermined open position relative to the enclosure based upon the adjustable calibration, to generate the door opening count.