U.S. Government Support

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Area of the Art

The present invention has to do with asset measurement and control and is specifically directed to an advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag-based asset management system.

Description of the Background

Managing “assets” is an increasingly complex tasks of modern governments and corporations. Generally, asset management implies a semi-automated process of caring for valuable or important items. For example, a company could track all of the components used in a large manufacturing facility and verify that everything is working properly and plan for upgrade and replacement. Asset management can be applied to some extent to virtually any project. It turns out that managing assets for response to remote emergencies is particularly challenging.

Take, for instance, emergency response to an oil well spill or blow-out; an oil well mishap is not guaranteed but is certainly a possibility of petroleum exploration and production. An uncontrolled spill or well blow-out can be a major environmental disaster. Particularly since drilling often occurs in remote and environmentally sensitive regions. Therefore, particularly for remote locations, spill responses must be organized and set up in advance. However, the precise equipment needed for an emergency response depends on the location and geographical characteristics of a well site. To respond to a well leak under the water as in the Gulf of Mexico is quite different that controlling a runaway well in the arctic. So special equipment must be organized and shipped to an appropriate location in reasonable proximity to the well site. Making certain that the correct equipment is placed in the correct location is an important extension of asset management. It will be appreciated that these consideration apply to response equipment for fire, earthquake, flood, conflict or any other emergency situation.

Until now managers have been forced to depend on the original requisition and shipment records. If the remote location is constantly manned or reasonably accessible, personnel can be sent out to verify the existence of the correct pieces of equipment at the remote site. If the site is essentially inaccessible, management may just have to hope that the original shipment records are correct. Furthermore, with remote locations there is a significant possibility that one or more of the emergency components may be purloined. Therefore, a means to verify the presence of various assets in remote locations is required. It is also advantageous if any movement of the assets be automatically reported to management. Currently there is no systems to carry out this task in an automatic or semi-automatic manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The current invention provides a system that can be used to tag and track assets anywhere in the world and under any environmental condition to increase the user's situational awareness of equipment, assets, and resources before, during, and after their deployment. The system comprises the Geo-Referencing Identification (GRID) tag, GRID satellite (GRIDSAT) tag and associated cloud infrastructure and user interface to meet the objectives of a robust global tagging and tracking system.

The holistic “GRID” system used to track material movement, storage and deployment consists of several distinct parts:1. The GRID tag used to identify unique pieces of equipment or storage containers for low-value or aggregate equipment. The GRID tag resembles traditional RFID tags except that the tags are able to communicate with each other. GRID tags only communicate with each other using a mesh radio in each tag. However, they can also communicate with a GRIDSAT tag and thereby to a satellite system, through the satellite gateway and on to the cloud infrastructure for processing and display to the end User.2. The GRIDSAT tag which can be used by itself for high-value items, large shipping containers, or vehicles and vessels to track and locate them, or used in concert with GRID tags that communicate with each other and with the GRIDSAT tag by means of mesh radio. The GRIDSAT tag consists of a satellite modem, global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and mesh radio.3. The satellite system that the GRIDSAT tag communicates through, by default because of extreme latitudes for some of the target locations, is the Iridium system. The Iridium network is not described in this application, but is referred to often. It will be appreciated that other satellite systems can be substituted depending on the locations, etc. that the GRIDSAT will be used in.4. The GRID server and database which includes all pieces of the cloud Infrastructure and GIS (Geographic Information System) software, including a database to house all applicable tracking data, and a user interface for extracting and analyzing the information.

The GRID and GRIDSAT tags provide the end-users with an active radio frequency identification (RFID) system that:1. Can be deployed to track any emergency response vehicle or asset anywhere in the world.2. Does not require setting up field infrastructure including any local network, power lines or local RFID portal to read the tags. Unlike typical RFID systems, the GRID/GRIDSAT system can operate autonomously over a wide-area while fully untethered.3. Utilizes a self-healing mesh network that can alter the pathway for tag communications to other GRID and GRIDSAT tags.4. Is powered but remains in a low power “sleep” state until “awoken” by a sensor driven event (such as accelerometer output) and/or a software schedule.5. Utilizes the open-source IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) wireless technology, providing flexibility in future end-user configurations and use cases.

A trade study and COTS (“commercial, off the shelf”) assessment of available satellite communication services and satellite tracking providers was performed early in the inventive process for tags that were predominantly designed for asset tracking. The items, components, services, and software targeted in the study were the primary components of Radio-Frequency Identification systems necessary for positioning and communication through satellite systems: radio frequency modules, GPS modules, antennas, accelerometers, batteries, and support infrastructure. It was determined that all internal components chosen would have to operate in marine arctic environments where the tag would have to be saltwater- and corrosion-resistant, and be able to function down to at least −40° Celsius.

A primary operational focus of the GRID tags is on deployed resources, such as vessels arriving to assist in a spill or other disaster response. The tagging and monitoring of pre-positioned assets such as oil response equipment in storage and in transit is a secondary focus.

The inventive system can be readily modified for various remote tracking tasks. The embodiment that is described in detail below has two main environmental sensor inputs to the controller for all tags; namely, a voltage input for verifying battery status and a motion sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope or similar device). In addition the GRIDSAT tag has a GPS receiver and antenna that reports GPS location data. Any of a number of additional sensors can be provided to extend the usefulness of the system. Temperature sensors can allow the system to automatically respond to changes in the local environment. Apart from radio systems other types of electromagnetic energy sensors can be added so that the system can respond to changes in illumination or X-ray gamma ray levels; also radiation sensors can allow the system to respond to particulate radiation (alpha or beta radiation).

Sonic transducers can be particularly useful and provide a system for tracking ice floes and icebergs. A special versions of the GRID and GRIDSAT tags are used for this purpose. The GRID tag components are sealed in a waterproof spherical shell for emplacement in the underside of or within an ice floe by a submersible or similar device. In this embodiment of the GRID tag, the accelerometer is replaced by a pressure sensor which allows the device to respond to depth changes. The mesh radio is replaced by a subsurface transducer and a Lamb/Rayleigh Wave transducer. The GRIDSAT tag has a Lamb/Rayleigh detector/transducer in place of the mesh radio. The GRIDSAT is emplaced on the top of the ice floe and can be designed for emplacement by air drop. The GRIDSAT Lamb/Rayleigh detector/transducer can transmit a sonic “ping” into the ice. The GRID tag detects this by means of its subsurface transducer and responds by outputting “guided waves” (Lamb waves and Rayleigh waves) which encode data and can be detected through the ice by a GRIDSAT tag at a distance of 100 ft. to 2500 ft. (30.5 m to 762 m). It will be appreciated that for ice/water transmission, the mesh radio is omitted because it is of limited utility under these conditions. This system allows the GRIDSAT tags to locate any GRID tags associated with the ice floe and transmit their identity along with its own location and identity to the remote user by means of satellite. Movement of the ice floe is constantly recorded and the user is kept appraised of the geographical location of the ice. In addition, pressure changes in the GRID tags are reported as well as presence of the GRID tags. Changes in the GRID tags can signal breakup of the ice floe.

