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US 12,156,105 B2Granted
Ultra-wideband location systems and methods
AssigneeBe Spoon
InventorPhilippe Bollard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method includes sending, by a master beacon device and one or more beacon repeater devices, ultra-wideband (UWB) beacon frames. The UWB beacon frames are transmitted as interleaved pairs of UWB beacon frames. Each interleaved pair includes a first UWB beacon frame and a second UWB beacon frame. For each interleaved pair, the first UWB beacon frame and the second UWB beacon frame are transmitted with a master time delay. The method further includes receiving, by one or more tag devices, at least one of the interleaved pairs of UWB beacon frames.
Claims20
A real-time location method comprising:
- sending, by a master beacon device and a plurality of beacon repeater devices, ultra-wideband beacon frames, wherein the ultra-wideband beacon frames are transmitted as interleaved pairs of ultra-wideband beacon frames, wherein each interleaved pair is sent either from the master beacon device or the plurality of beacon repeater devices, wherein each interleaved pair includes a first ultra-wideband beacon frame and a second ultra-wideband beacon frame, and wherein, for each interleaved pair, the first ultra-wideband beacon frame and the second ultra-wideband beacon frame are transmitted with a master time delay;
- and
- receiving, by a tag device, at least one of the interleaved pairs of ultra-wideband beacon frames,
- wherein sending and receiving is performed using an exchange protocol that defines a location rate frame format comprising:
- a beacon section comprising a series of time slots, wherein the time slots are respectively associated to one of the first ultra-wideband beacon frame and the second ultra-wideband beacon frame of an interleaved pair, such that a separation in time of the time slots associated to each of the interleaved pair is given by the master time delay, wherein, between time slots assigned to the first ultra-wideband beacon frame and the second ultra-wideband beacon frame of a first one of the interleaved pairs, which includes an initial one of the ultra-wideband beacon frames within the beacon section, and wherein an array of time slots is respectively assigned to the first ultra-wideband beacon frames of the remaining pairs;
- and
- determining a position of the tag device by time measurements based on the ultra-wideband beacon frames received at the tag device.
4 more elements
A real-time location system comprising:
- a master beacon device comprising:
- a beacon transmission unit configured to transmit two successive beacon frames including a first beacon frame transmitted at a first beacon transmission time point and a second beacon frame transmitted at a second beacon transmission time point,
- a master clock defining a master time, and
- a master storage unit configured to store a master time delay data,
- wherein the two successive beacon frames are transmitted with a master time delay that corresponds to the master time delay data;
- a plurality of beacon repeater devices, wherein each beacon repeater device of the plurality of beacon repeater devices is configured to transmit respective pairs of beacon frames, each respective pair of beacon frames being transmitted with the master time delay;
- and
- a first tag device comprising:
- a tag clock defining a tag time that is specific for the first tag device;
- a reception unit configured to receive the two successive beacon frames sent from the master beacon device or the respective pairs of beacon frames sent from the plurality of beacon repeater devices;
- and
- a calculation unit configured to determine distance values associated with a position of the first tag device using respective temporal shifts of the two successive beacon frames sent from the master beacon device or the respective pairs of beacon frames sent from the plurality of beacon repeater devices.
9 more elements
A tag device comprising:
- a tag clock providing a tag time;
- a reception circuit configured to:
- receive two successive beacon frames sent from a master beacon device or a beacon repeater device,
- determine a first tag beacon time point and a second tag beacon time point for the receiving of the two successive beacon frames at the respective tag device, and
- generate a tag-specific reception time delay data from the first tag beacon time point and the second tag beacon time point;
- a tag data storage circuit configured to store master time delay data, a reference time point associated with receiving of one of the beacon frames being used as a reference beacon frame, and a tag-specific emission time delay data associated with the tag device and the reference time point;
- and
- a calibration and calculation circuit configured to:
- calibrate the tag clock with respect to a master time by comparing the tag-specific reception time delay data and the master time delay data, and
- determine distance values associated with a position of the tag device using respective temporal shifts of the two successive beacon frames.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.