Granted Patent B2

US 12,545,532 · App. 18/492,131 · Granted Feb 10, 2026

Inventors: Zhuo Liu (Shanghai, CN); Hao Yang (Shanghai, CN); Haihui Lu (Shanghai, CN); Yuhong Huang (Acton, MA); Brian M. Perreault (Stow, MA); Azeddine Choumach (Littleton, MA); Daniel I. Lanier (North Billerica, MA); Robert H. Schmidt (Germantown, WI)

Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.

B65G54/02B65G2203/0283B65G2209/04

Abstract

Claims (64)

1 . A system for identifying movers in an independent cart system, the system comprising:

a plurality of movers, wherein each mover includes at least one magnet generating a magnetic field;

a plurality of sensors, wherein each sensor generates a feedback signal responsive to detecting the magnetic field from the at least one magnet on each mover as each mover travels past the sensor;

a memory operative to store a plurality of instructions, a plurality of identifiers, wherein each identifier corresponds to one of the plurality of movers, and a plurality of digital fingerprints, wherein each digital fingerprint corresponds to the magnetic field generated by the at least one magnet on each mover; and

a controller operative to execute the plurality of instructions to:

receive the feedback signal from each sensor,

determine a run-time digital fingerprint for each mover corresponding to the magnetic field generated by the at least one magnet on each mover as a function of the feedback signal,

match the run-time digital fingerprint to a stored digital fingerprint for one of the plurality of movers, and

obtain the identifier corresponding to the mover with the stored digital fingerprint matching the run-time fingerprint.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the memory is further operative to store a gain and an offset value for each of the plurality of sensors; and

the controller is further operative to:

convert the feedback signal from each of the plurality of sensors to a normalized feedback signal as a function of the gain and the offset value corresponding to each sensor, and

the run-time digital fingerprint is determined as a function of the normalized feedback signal.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein:

the feedback signal generated by each of the plurality of sensors responsive to detecting the magnetic field from the at least one magnet on each mover as each mover travels past the sensor includes a plurality of peaks;

the memory is further operative to store a plurality of gains and a plurality of offset values for each of the plurality of sensors, wherein one gain, selected from the plurality of gains, and one offset value, selected from the plurality of offset values, corresponds to one peak, selected from the plurality of peaks, for each sensor; and

the controller is further operative to:

divide the feedback signal from each of the plurality of sensors into a plurality of segments, wherein each segment corresponds to one of the plurality of peaks, and

convert the feedback signal from each of the plurality of sensors to a normalized feedback signal as a function of the gain and the offset value corresponding to each peak in the feedback signal.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the controller obtains a plurality of samples of the feedback signal around a peak value within each segment.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the memory is further operative to store sensor data corresponding to a factory sensor which generated the stored digital fingerprint.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the sensor data includes a gain and an offset value for the factory sensor and wherein the controller is further operative to convert the feedback signal from each of the plurality of sensors to the normalized feedback signal as a function of the gain and the offset value corresponding to each sensor and as a function of the gain and the offset value for the factory sensor.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further operative to:

sample the feedback signal from each of the plurality of sensors at a periodic time interval;

obtain a speed feedback value for each mover at the periodic time interval; and

convert the feedback signal from a time-based feedback signal to a position-based feedback signal as a function of the speed feedback value and of the feedback signal sampled at each of the periodic intervals.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the feedback signal generated by each of the plurality of sensors is a multi-axis feedback signal; and

the controller is further operative to determine the run-time digital fingerprint for each mover corresponding to the magnetic field generated by the at least one magnet on each mover as a function of at least two axes in the multi-axis feedback signal.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein a first mover, selected from the plurality of movers, and a second mover, selected from the plurality of movers, are linked together.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein:

a physical structure connects the first mover to the second mover in a rigid coupling such that the first and second movers travel together in the independent cart system, and

the controller determines the run-time digital fingerprint only for either the first mover or the second mover which are linked together.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein:

a physical structure connects the first mover to the second mover in a rigid coupling such that the first and second movers travel together as a pair of movers in the independent cart system,

the controller determines the run-time digital fingerprint only for both the first mover and the second mover which are linked together, and

the controller combines the run-time digital fingerprints from the first mover and the second mover to determine a run-time digital fingerprint for the pair of movers.

12 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a linear drive system to propel each of the plurality of movers along a track for the independent cart system, wherein the linear drive system includes a plurality of coils spaced along the track and the at least one magnet mounted on each mover.

13 . A method for identifying movers in an independent cart system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a feedback signal from a magnetic field sensor, wherein:

the feedback signal corresponds to a magnetic field generated by a plurality of magnets mounted on a mover,

the feedback signal is generated as the mover travels past the magnetic field sensor, and

the magnetic field sensor is selected from a plurality of magnetic field sensors located along a track for the independent cart system;

converting the feedback signal from the magnetic field sensor to a normalized feedback signal as a function of at least one sensor parameter stored in memory, wherein the at least one sensor parameter is stored for each of the plurality of magnetic field sensors;

generating a run-time digital fingerprint of the normalized feedback signal;

matching the run-time digital fingerprint to a stored digital fingerprint, wherein the stored digital fingerprint is selected from a plurality of digital fingerprints stored in the memory; and

reading an identifier from the memory, wherein the identifier corresponds to the stored digital fingerprint and provides a unique identifier for the mover within the independent cart system.

14 . The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of dividing the feedback signal into a plurality of segments, wherein the step of converting the feedback signal from the magnetic field sensor to the normalized feedback signal includes converting each of the plurality of segments in the feedback signal to a normalized segment as a function of at least one sensor parameter stored in the memory for each of the plurality of segments.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the step of generating the run-time digital fingerprint of the normalized feedback signal further comprises the steps of:

obtaining a plurality of samples of the normalized feedback signal within each of the plurality of segments; and

generating the digital fingerprint as a function of the plurality of samples of the normalized feedback signal within each of the plurality of segments.

16 . The method of claim 13 wherein:

the memory further includes sensor data corresponding to a factory sensor which generated the stored digital fingerprint, and

the step of converting the feedback signal from the magnetic field sensor to the normalized feedback signal converts the signal as a function of the sensor data corresponding to the factory sensor.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein:

the at least one sensor parameter includes a gain and an offset value for the corresponding magnetic field sensor,

the sensor data corresponding to the factory sensor includes a gain and an offset value for the factory sensor, and

the step of converting the feedback signal from the magnetic field sensor to the normalized feedback signal converts the feedback signal from each of the plurality of magnetic field sensors to the normalized feedback signal as a function of the gain and the offset value corresponding to each magnetic field sensor and as a function of the gain and the offset value for the factory sensor.

18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the step of receiving the feedback signal from the magnetic sensor includes sampling the feedback signal from the magnetic field sensor at a periodic time interval and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

obtaining a speed feedback value for each mover at the periodic time interval; and

converting the feedback signal from a time-based feedback signal to a position-based feedback signal as a function of the speed feedback value and of the feedback signal sampled at each of the periodic intervals.

19 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the feedback signal generated by each of the plurality of sensors is a multi-axis feedback signal.

20 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the independent cart system includes a linear drive system to propel each of the plurality of movers along the track and wherein the linear drive system includes a plurality of coils spaced along the track and the plurality of magnets mounted on the mover.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (39)