Luminaire associate
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsMichael James Hartman, Bruce Gordon Barnett, John Erik Hershey, Michael Joseph Dell'Anno, Stanislava Soro
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A street lighting fixture and street lamp used in street lighting containing an accelerometer that is used to detect and characterize acceleration events on a street lighting fixture. The accelerometer readings may be combined with GPS technology to determine a relocation of the street lighting fixture.
Claims17
A luminaire associate device for use with a luminaire in a street lighting system comprising:
- a luminaire associate powerline that delivers power to the luminaire associate;
- an energy storage device having a recharging circuitry operatively connected to the luminaire associate powerline;
- a power supply switch connected to the luminaire associate powerline and the energy storage device;
- a power distribution circuit connected to the power supply switch comprising a tilt switch or level monitor switch;
- a GPS receiver powered by the power supply switch;
- a multiple-axis accelerometer with analog-to-digital electronic converters powered from the power supply switch;
- and
- a computer connected to the power supply switch, the GPS receiver, and the multiple-axis accelerometer.
A method for determining an acceleration event of a luminaire associate mounted on a street light having a power source, a lamp pole, the street light, a GPS receiver and the luminaire associate comprising the steps of:
- sensing movement of the luminaire associate through a multiple-axis accelerometer within the street light, wherein the multiple-axis accelerometer has two axes forming a plane essentially parallel to a ground plane upon which the street light sits;
- recording a time and a date for sensed movement if the sensed movement exceeds a predetermined threshold;
- calculating a magnitude of a horizontal acceleration from data reported by the sensing through the multiple-axis accelerometer;
- determining a start of the acceleration event as the time and the date the magnitude of the horizontal acceleration if the magnitude exceeds the preset threshold;
- determining an end of the acceleration event as the time and the date the magnitude of the horizontal acceleration drops below the preset threshold;
- recording the horizontal acceleration data reported by each of the multiple-axis accelerometer's two axes at the time of the maximum value of the magnitude of the horizontal acceleration during the sensed movement.
A method for detecting a luminaire associate relocation position from stored reference geographical position comprising the steps of:
- deriving an estimated geographical position for the luminaire associate from a GPS receiver contained within the luminaire associate;
- deriving an estimate of lateral displacement by electronically sampling and processing the multi-axis accelerometer data;
- combining the estimated geographical position and the estimated lateral displacement using a sensor fusion algorithm to form a single estimate of spatial translation;
- comparing the single estimate of spatial translation to a preset threshold of spatial translation;
- setting a luminaire associate relocation datum (LARD) if the single estimate of spatial translation exceeds the preset threshold of spatial translation.
A luminaire associate system comprising:
- a GPS receiver configured to report estimates of its geographical location, a multiple-axis accelerometer with analog-to-digital electronic converters providing estimates of its spatial translation, and a computer configured to fuse the GPS receiver reporting estimates and the multiple-axis accelerometer spatial translation estimates to detect the relocation of the luminaire associate from its stored reference geographical position.
A luminaire associate system comprising a multiple-axis accelerometer with analog-to-digital electronic converters providing measurements of acceleration and a computer using the measurements of acceleration to characterize acceleration events.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.