Granted Patent B2

US 12,571,901 · App. 18/605,170 · Granted Mar 10, 2026

Inventor: Spencer Hewett (New York, NY)

Assignee: Automaton, Inc.

G01S13/74G01S5/0215G01S5/0263G01S11/026G01S2013/462G01S2013/466G01S2013/468G01S13/867

Abstract

Claims (25)

1 . A method for locating a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, comprising:

traversing an environment with a robot having the RFID tag attached thereto;

transmitting a plurality of activation signals from a plurality of antennas to the RFID tag;

analyzing first and second response signals, received via the plurality of antennas, from the RFID tag in response to at least one of the plurality of activation signals;

triangulating a position of the RFID tag based upon said analyzing; and

generating a map indicating the position of the RFID tag.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said analyzing comprises:

altering a transmission signal property associated with a first activation signal of the plurality of activation signals; and

transmitting a secondary activation signal with the altered transmission signal property.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein altering a transmission signal property comprises:

adjusting a power, phase, polarization, and/or beam width associated with the first activation signal based on at least one of air humidity, air temperature, an environmental noise level, or a signal indicating a presence of people or objects in an area.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the power, phase, polarization, and/or beam width associated with the first activation signal is adjusted to compensate for at least one of environmental or structural interference.

5 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

transmitting, by a first antenna, a calibration signal to a second antenna;

determining, based on the calibration signal, at least one of a delay associated with environmental factors or a phase shift associated with environmental factors; and

refining the map based on the delay or the phase shift.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by a camera, image data representing the environment;

determining, using the image data, a location of the robot; and

calibrating the position of the RFID tag based on the location of the robot.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the camera comprises at least one of an RGB camera, a monochrome visible light camera, a 3D camera, a depth camera, an infrared camera, or an ultraviolet sensor.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

forming, as the robot traverses the environment, read probability references;

matching, through time synchronization, locations of RFID tag activation to the map; and

calculating read probabilities corresponding to the read probability references as a function of the locations of RFID tag activation.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (7)

References Cited (142)