IP Library Granted Patent US 12,104,423
Granted Patent B2
US 12,104,423 · App. 17/495,651 · Granted Oct 1, 2024

Garage door opener battery backup system

Inventors: Darren Learmonth (Austin, TX); Jari Niemela (San Diego, CA); Gerald Dillon (Escondido, CA); Mark C. Mattson (Carlsbad, CA)
Assignee: Nice North America LLC
E05F15/668G01R31/392E05F15/603E05F15/70E05F15/77E05Y2400/36E05Y2400/452E05Y2400/502E05Y2400/614E05Y2900/106G06F1/3203H02J9/061
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,104,423
App. No.
17/495,651
Granted
Oct 1, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

In one aspect, a garage door opener system includes a battery configured to be charged by a power source, a controller coupled to the battery, the controller configured to operate a motor that is powered only by the battery, at least one sensor coupled to the motor and the controller, the at least one sensor generating sensor data, and a battery monitoring system coupled to the battery, the controller, and the least one sensor, the battery monitoring system configured to monitor a power consumption of the battery and a state of the battery, and to update an operation configuration of the controller based on historical power consumption of the battery, the state of the battery, and the sensor data.

Claims (48)

1. A garage door opener system comprising:

a motor configured to be coupled to a garage door to open and close the garage door;

a battery configured to be charged by a power source;

a controller coupled to the battery, the controller configured to operate the motor in accordance with an operation configuration stored by the controller, the motor powered only by the battery;

at least one sensor coupled to the motor and the controller, the at least one sensor generating sensor data; and

a battery monitoring system coupled to the battery, the controller, and the least one sensor, the battery monitoring system configured

to monitor a power consumption of the battery and a state of the battery,

to estimate a remaining battery life based on a historical power consumption of the battery, the state of the battery, and the sensor data,

to estimate a remaining number of garage door operations based on the remaining battery life and the state of the battery, and

to update the operation configuration of the controller based on the remaining battery life.

2. The garage door opener system of claim 1 , wherein the battery monitoring system determines that the remaining number of garage door operations is below a threshold, and in response to determining that the remaining number of garage door operations is below the threshold, generates a notification to a user of the garage door opener system, the notification indicating that the remaining number of garage door operations is below the threshold.

3. The garage door opener system of claim 1 , wherein the battery monitoring system determines that the remaining battery life is below a threshold, and in response to determining that the remaining battery life is below the threshold, generate an operation configuration that mitigates power consumption of the battery.

4. The garage door opener system of claim 3 , wherein the operation configuration comprises at least one of throttling a speed of the motor, reducing a power consumption of a component of the garage door opener system, or charging the battery on a predefined schedule.

5. The garage door opener system of claim 3 , wherein the operation configuration comprises dimming a light of the garage door opener based on ambient light sensed by a light sensor of the garage door opener system.

6. The garage door opener system of claim 1 , wherein the battery monitoring system performs a mechanical assessment based historical power consumption of the battery, the sensor data, and the state of the battery, and estimates a remaining mechanical life of a mechanical component of the garage door opener system based on the mechanical assessment.

7. The garage door opener system of claim 6 , wherein the battery monitoring system determines that the remaining mechanical life of the mechanical component is below a threshold, and in response to the remaining mechanical life of the mechanical component being below the threshold, generates a notification to a user of the garage door opener system.

8. The garage door opener system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a communication module configured to upload the historical power consumption of the battery, the sensor data, and the state of the battery to a server,

the server being configured to receive historical power consumption of batteries, sensor data, and state of batteries from a plurality of garage door opener systems, to train a machine learning model based on the historical power consumption of batteries, sensor data, and state of batteries, and to generate the operation configuration based on the machine learning model.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating sensor data with at least one sensor coupled to a motor and a controller, wherein the sensor, the motor, the controller and a battery comprise a garage door opener system in which the motor is only powered by the battery and is configured to be coupled to a garage door to open and close the garage door, and wherein the controller is coupled to the battery and the motor and configured to operate the motor in accordance with an operation configuration stored by the controller;

monitoring a power consumption of the battery of the garage door opener system, and a state of the battery, the battery being configured to be charged by a power source;

estimating a remaining battery life based on a historical power consumption of the battery, the state of the battery, and the sensor data;

estimating a remaining number of garage door operations based on the remaining battery life and the state of the battery;

determining that the remaining battery life is below a threshold;

in response to determining that the remaining battery life is below the threshold,

updating the operation configuration to mitigate power consumption of the battery by the motor.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising:

determines that the remaining number of garage door operations is below a threshold; and

in response to determining that the remaining number of garage door operations is below the threshold, generating a notification to a user of the garage door opener system, the notification indicating that the remaining number of garage door operations is below the threshold.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the operation configuration comprises at least one of throttling a speed of the motor, reducing a power consumption of a component of the garage door opener system, or charging the battery on a predefined schedule.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the operation configuration comprises dimming a light of the garage door opener based on ambient light sensed by a light sensor of the garage door opener system.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising

performing a mechanical assessment based historical power consumption of the battery, the sensor data, and the state of the battery;

estimating a remaining mechanical life of a mechanical component of the garage door opener system based on the mechanical assessment;

determining that the remaining mechanical life of the mechanical component is below a threshold; and

in response to the remaining mechanical life of the mechanical component being below the threshold, generating a notification to a user of the garage door opener system.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising:

uploading the historical power consumption of the battery, the sensor data, and the state of the battery to a server, the server being configured to receive historical power consumption of batteries, sensor data, and state of batteries from a plurality of garage door opener systems, to train a machine learning model based on the historical power consumption of batteries, sensor data, and state of batteries, and to generate the operation configuration based on the machine learning model; and

downloading the operation configuration from the server.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

generate sensor data with at least one sensor coupled to a motor and a controller, wherein the at least one sensor, the motor, the controller and a battery comprise a garage door opener system in which the motor is only powered by the battery and is configured to be coupled to a garage door to open and close the garage door, and wherein the controller is coupled to the battery and the motor and configured to operate the motor in accordance with an operation configuration stored by the controller;

monitor a power consumption of the battery of the garage door opener system, and a state of the battery, the battery being configured to be charged by a power source;

estimate a remaining life of the battery based on a historical power consumption of the battery, the state of the battery, and the sensor data;

estimate a remaining number of garage door operations based on the remaining battery life and the state of the battery;

determine that the remaining battery life is below a threshold;

in response to determining that the remaining battery life is below the threshold,

update the operation configuration to mitigate power consumption of the battery by the motor.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jan 9, 2024
From: NORTEK SECURITY & CONTROL LLC
To: NICE NORTH AMERICA LLC
Reel/Frame 066242/0513 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 6, 2021
From: LEARMONTH, DARREN; NIEMELA, JARI; DILLON, GERALD; MATTSON, MARK C.
To: NORTEK SECURITY & CONTROL LLC
Reel/Frame 057721/0044 →