Shared Communication Node for Synchronized Sensor Data Sampling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sensor systems face challenges in synchronizing sensor output data transmission across multiple sensors, leading to latency and ambiguity in data age, particularly in high-speed controller environments where timely and synchronized data is crucial for accurate system operation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a shared communication node that uses a trigger signal to synchronize data transmission and storage across sensors, allowing them to respond in turn and store data in response to a trigger, with each sensor having a unique address for point-to-point communication, enabling synchronized data sampling and reduced latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If sensors update data periodically and controllers poll sensors, then data transmission is simple, but data latency increases and synchronization is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic trigger signals sent from the master controller to slave sensors at defined intervals. These trigger signals initiate synchronized data sampling and transmission cycles, replacing the inefficient periodic polling mechanism while maintaining time-based synchronization across all sensors in the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication protocol incorporates acknowledgment signals sent from slave sensors back to the master controller to confirm successful data reception and transmission status. This feedback mechanism enables the master controller to monitor network health, detect errors, and maintain synchronized operation without requiring complex polling sequences.
2Reliability
If multiple sensors transmit data independently, then each sensor operates autonomously, but data synchronization is lost and timing ambiguity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the timing control functions of multiple independent sensors into a single centralized trigger signal source at the master controller. All slave sensors receive the same synchronized trigger signal, ensuring they sample and transmit data at identical time points, thereby eliminating timing ambiguity while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The master controller acts as an intermediary that generates and distributes synchronized trigger signals to all slave sensors. This intermediary mechanism coordinates the sampling and transmission timing across the entire sensor network without requiring complex peer-to-peer synchronization protocols between individual sensors.
3Reliability
If separate communication lines are used for each sensor, then communication reliability is high, but the number of connections increases and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal communication bus that serves multiple slave sensors simultaneously, replacing the need for dedicated separate communication lines for each sensor. This multi-functional bus maintains communication reliability through structured protocol control while dramatically reducing the total number of physical connections required in the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a one-to-one connection topology to a one-to-many star topology, where a single master controller communicates with multiple slave sensors through a shared bus. This topological transformation reduces connection complexity from O(n) dedicated lines to O(1) shared bus while maintaining reliable communication through protocol-based address identification and data framing.
4Measurement precision
If sensors transmit data at different times, then each sensor operates independently, but data age ambiguity increases and processing accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The master controller sends preliminary trigger signals to all slave sensors before data sampling begins. These advance trigger signals synchronize the start of data acquisition across all sensors, ensuring that all measurements represent the same temporal moment. This preliminary synchronization eliminates data age ambiguity without requiring complex post-processing timing corrections.
Data Source
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AI summary
A network slave device includes a transceiver for communicating over a communication bus in accordance with a point-to-point network protocol. The network slave device may have an address to identify the network slave device on the network. It may also have a communication circuit configured to process a series of commands received by the transceiver and respond to a command if a position of the command in the series of commands corresponds to the address of the network slave device. A master device communicating on the network may send the series of command in accordance with the point-to-point network protocol. In an embodiment, the point-to-point protocol is the SENT protocol.