Lighting systems and methods of auto-commissioning
View Patent ↗A lighting system for areal illumination is disclosed which includes a remote driver and a plurality of fixtures including luminaires, control devices, and/or standalone sensors. A method of commissioning a lighting system is also disclosed which includes causing a light source co-located with each luminaire to emit a signal, detecting the signal at light sensors co-located with each luminaire, converting the signals obtained by the light sensors into distance measurements between luminaires, creating a map recording the relative location of luminaires, and assigning luminaires to groups based on their relative locations in the map. A movable orb region containing luminaires can also be defined.
1. A method of commissioning a lighting system, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of fixtures, the fixtures comprising a plurality of luminaires;
providing a plurality of sensors and a plurality of signal sources, wherein each one of the sensors and each one of the signal sources is co-located with a respective one of the fixtures in the lighting system;
causing a respective one of the signal sources to emit a signal;
detecting the signal at a respective one of the sensors;
converting the signal detected by the respective one of the sensors into a measurement of a distance between the fixture that is co-located with the respective one of the signal sources that emitted the signal and the fixture that is co-located with the respective one of the sensors that detected the signal; and
creating a fixture map based on the distance between the fixtures.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning the fixtures to a plurality of groups based on relative locations of the fixtures in the fixture map.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising controlling any light sources in the fixtures assigned to one group together as a group.
4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
measuring a reference light intensity detected by one of a plurality of light sensors included in the sensors, wherein the one of the light sensors is located at a center of one of the groups; and
adjusting a light level of any light source in the fixtures that are in the one of the groups so that each of the light sensors co-located with the fixtures that are in the one of the groups measures light at the reference light intensity.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising overlaying a movable orb region on the fixture map, and determining a location of the luminaires within the movable orb region.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising setting a light level of each light source in the luminaires located within the orb region such that the light level in the orb region decreases from a center to a periphery of the orb region.
7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising setting a light level of each light source in the luminaires located within the orb region such that the light level increases from a center of the orb region to a periphery of the orb region.
8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising setting a light level of each light source in the luminaires located within the orb region by setting a drive current, voltage, or pulse width provided to the luminaires so that the signal detected by the respective one of the sensors co-located with each one of the luminaires within the orb region decreases as a distance of each one of the sensors from a center of the orb region increases.
9. The method of claim 5 , wherein each light source in the luminaires located within the orb region is set to a light level that varies according to a predefined mathematical function of a location of each light source within the orb region.
10. A method of commissioning a lighting system comprising:
installing a plurality of luminaires, a plurality of light sensors, and a plurality of light sources such that each one of the light sensors and each one of the light sources is co-located with a respective one of the luminaires;
causing a respective one of the light sources to emit a signal;
detecting the signal with a respective one of the light sensors;
converting the signal detected by the respective one of the light sensors into a distance measurement between the respective one of the luminaires co-located with the respective one of the signal sources that emitted the signal and the respective one of luminaires co-located with the respective one of the light sensors that detected the signal;
creating a map of a location of the luminaires based on the distance measurement between the luminaires; and
assigning each one of the luminaires to a group of the luminaires based on the location of each of the luminaires in the map.
11. A system for commissioning a lighting system, the system comprising:
a plurality of sensors;
a plurality of signal sources, wherein each one of the signal sources and each one of the sensors is co-located with a respective one of a plurality of fixtures in the lighting system, the fixtures comprising a plurality of luminaires; and
a remote driver configured to:
cause a respective one of the signal sources to emit a signal;
receive an output of a respective one of the sensors that detected the signal;
convert the output of the respective one of the sensors into a measurement of a distance between the fixture that is co-located with the respective one of the signal sources that emitted the signal and the fixture that is co-located with the respective one of the sensors that detected the signal; and
create a fixture map based on the distance between the fixtures.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the signal sources are included in the fixtures.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein each one of the signal sources comprises a respective primary light source of the respective one of the luminaires, the signal is a light signal, and the sensors comprise a plurality of optical sensors.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the sensors are included in the fixtures.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the fixtures comprise control devices.
16. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of wires, wherein each one of the wires electrically couples the remote driver to a corresponding one of the fixtures, to a corresponding one of the signal sources, and to a corresponding one of the signal sources, and wherein the remote driver provides power and communicates over each of the wires.
17. A system for commissioning a lighting system comprising:
a remote driver comprising a plurality of ports,
wherein each one of the ports is configured to connect to a respective one of a plurality of luminaires over a respective wire, and
wherein the remote driver is configured to:
communicate with each one of a plurality of sensors over the respective wire, wherein each one of the sensors is co-located with the respective one of the luminaires;
cause a respective one of a plurality of signal sources to emit a signal, wherein each one of the signal sources is co-located with the respective one of the luminaires;
receive, over the respective wire, an output of a respective one of the sensors that detected the signal;
convert the signal detected by the respective one of the light sensors into a distance measurement between the respective one of the luminaires co-located with the respective one of the signal sources that emitted the signal and the respective one of luminaires co-located with the respective one of the light sensors that detected the signal;
create a map of a location of the luminaires based on the distance measurement between the luminaires.