Wireless Sensor Location Mapping via RFID Tags
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless sensor networks face challenges in accurately mapping the physical locations of wireless sensors without the use of wires, which is necessary for efficient deployment and reduced installation time, costs, and material requirements, especially in environments where running wires is not feasible.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a server, a database, machine-readable tags with position-related digital information, and wireless sensors that emit signals containing their identity, allowing the server to associate the sensors with their physical locations by reading the tags and storing this information in the database.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wireless sensors are used instead of hard-wired sensors, then installation time and material requirements are reduced, but the ability to accurately map sensor physical locations is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces machine-readable tags as intermediary objects that carry location information. These tags are placed at known physical locations and contain encoded position data that wireless sensors can detect and associate with their identity, thereby bridging the gap between wireless operation and location mapping accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-placing machine-readable tags at desired sensor locations before deploying wireless sensors. This advance preparation ensures that when sensors are deployed, their location information is already available in the environment, eliminating the need for post-deployment location determination
2Device complexity
If wireless sensors are deployed without wires, then installation costs and complexity are reduced, but the process of associating sensors with physical locations becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical connection system (wires) with an electromagnetic field-based system where sensors communicate wirelessly. Machine-readable tags serve as the linking mechanism, containing location information that sensors can read through electromagnetic fields, thereby eliminating physical connections while maintaining location association capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses machine-readable tags that contain copied or replicated location information. Instead of physically connecting sensors to location data through wires, the location information is copied into machine-readable format on tags that sensors can read, simplifying the association process
Data Source
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AI summary
Mapping the physical location of each sensor of a network of wireless sensors in a configured environment, each sensor being in communication with a server and its database, is achieved by attaching RFID tags to objects in the environment which contain both object-relevant information and the MAC address of sensors proximate to those objects. The locations of the tags on the objects are proxies for the locations of the sensors identified on those tags. By reading the tags and up-loading the read tag information to the database, the association of the sensor and the object is known to the server and can be matched with the configuration of the environment to infer the location of each wireless sensor.