Rfid and robots for multichannel shopping
AssigneeADASA Inc.
InventorClarke William McAllister
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to systems, methods, and devices for consumers using RFID-tagged items for multichannel shopping using smartphones, tablets, and indoor navigation, preservation of consumer's privacy related to RFID-tagged items that they leave a retail store with, and automatically reading and locating retail inventory without directly using store labor. Robots and aerial mobile automated RFID reading devices are disclosed.
Claims20
An inventory locating system comprising:
- a plurality of RFID transponders;
- location references;
- a two-wheeled mobile device;
- an antenna having a gain of at least 11 dBic to form a narrow interrogation field;
- an RFID interrogator coupled with the antenna;
- moving parts on the two-wheeled mobile device to precisely direct the interrogation field to selected vectors that as an aggregate prevent missing any transponders from among the plurality of transponders;
- a triangulation computation for computing each location of the plurality of RFID transponders from transponder readings from the selected vectors;
- and accelerometers to sense motion, acceleration, and posture of the two-wheeled mobile device.
A robot for reading a plurality of RFID transponders comprising:
- two wheel hub motors;
- two motor drives;
- a battery mounted such that the robot's center of gravity is below the axles of both hub motors;
- a high gain antenna for forming a narrow RF beam for reading the plurality of transponders;
- and
- accelerometers and gyros to sense motion, acceleration, and posture of the robot.
A method of reading the locations of a plurality of RFID transponders comprising the steps of:
- reading location references;
- moving a two-wheeled mobile device;
- tilting the two-wheeled mobile device;
- rotating the two-wheeled mobile device about its central vertical axis;
- using the moving, tilting, and rotating to methodically direct an antenna having a gain of at least 11 dBic that is mounted on the two-wheeled mobile device to scan a narrow interrogation field to selected vectors;
- performing a triangulation computation for computing each transponder location of the plurality of RFID transponders from transponder readings from the selected vectors;
- and
- using accelerometers to sense and control motion, acceleration, and posture of the two-wheeled mobile device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.