Tracking a mobile unit in a housing facility for mobile units
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsAndrew Rawlinson, Xing Zhi Sun, Ziyuan Wang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile unit in a housing facility for mobile units may be tracked by activating a first reading device at a first location of the housing facility upon detecting a first mobile unit arriving at or departing from the first location, wherein the first mobile unit has a first tag having an identification code (ID) readable by the first reading device. A set of readings may be performed by the first reading device to read a set of tag IDs during a time interval. Upon an ending of the time interval, tag IDs, in the set of tag IDs, that correspond to the first tag ID are identified based on the set of readings. A record is updated to associate the first tag ID with the first location.
Claims20
A computer implemented method for tracking a mobile unit in a housing facility for mobile units, the method comprising:
- in response to receiving a signal from a detector associated with a first location, activating a first reading device having a reading range that includes at least the first location;
- receiving a first set of tag IDs from the first reading device, read during a first time interval;
- and
- in response to determining that one of the tag IDs in the first set of tag IDs cannot be associated with the first location, initiating a conflict resolution step to select a single tag ID for the first location.
A computer system for tracking a mobile unit in a housing facility for mobile units, the system comprising:
- a computer having a processor and a tangible storage device;
- and
- a program embodied on the storage device for execution by the processor, the program having a plurality of program modules, the program modules including:
- an activating module configured to such that, in response to receiving a signal from a detector associated with a first location, the activating module activates a first reading device having a reading range that includes at least the first location;
- a receiving module configured to receive a first set of tag IDs from the first reading device, read during a first time interval;
- and
- an updating module configured such that, in response to determining that one of the tag IDs in the first set of tag IDs cannot be associated with the first location, initiating a conflict resolution step to select a single tag ID for the first location.
A computer program product for tracking a mobile unit in a housing facility for mobile units, comprising a tangible storage device having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a processor of a computer to perform a method comprising:
- in response to receiving a signal from a detector associated with a first location, activating, by the processor, first reading device having a reading range that includes at least the first location;
- receiving a first set of tag IDs, by the processor, from the first reading device, read by the first reading device during a first time interval;
- and
- in response to determining, by the processor, that one of the tag IDs in the first set of tag IDs cannot be associated with the first location, initiating a conflict resolution step, by the processor, to select a single tag ID for the first location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.