Device and method to establish temporal correspondence in multiple sensor configurations

Abstract

A sensor concentrating system centralizes communication between multiple parameter sensing devices and an application host. As a peripheral device, the sensor concentrating unit establishes a temporal correspondence between range data acquired from multiple optical range sensors with position data acquired from a shaft encoder. The parameter data are read and sampled according to a user specified criteria such as the time division multiplexing technique. The sampled data is correlated with a data tag generated by the sensor concentrating unit. The correlated data is packeted transmitted from the sensor concentrating unit to a downstream application host for subsequent analysis. The sensor concentrating unit also provides operating parameters for individual parameter sensing devices.

1 . A sensor concentrating system for associating parameter value data from multiple series of parameter value data and for routing selected parameter data to a selected process control device downstream of the sensor concentrating system, the process control device acting in response to the routed data, said system comprising: 
 at least two parameter sensing devices, each parameter sensing device making a series of discrete parameter value measurements and generating a corresponding series of parameter value data;    means for receiving the series of parameter value data from the sensing devices representing the series of discrete parameter value measurements;    means for reading the series of parameter value data from the sensing devices;    discrimination means to separate parameter value data representing a parameter value measurement at one time or in one position or both from other parameter value data;    sampling means to read a selected set of parameter value data from each series of discrete parameter value data according to specified criteria;    processing means for associating selected sets of parameter value data from the parameter sensing devices and for generating a data tag representing at least one selected characteristic of the associated data; and    routing means for directing selected data to the downstream process control device.    
   
   
       2 . A sensor concentrating system as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the parameter data consist of one of the following: position data, time data, range data, temperature data, reflectivity data, and mass data.  
   
   
       3 . A sensor concentrating system as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the processing means includes a microprocessor, and a data storage means.  
   
   
       4 . A sensor concentrating system as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the routing means directs the selected data to the downstream process control device via a telecommunications network.  
   
   
       5 . A method for establishing a determinative association between at least two different sets of parameter data and utilizing such associated data in the control of apparatus for implementing an industrial process, comprising the steps of: 
 receiving at least two different series of parameter data, each series of parameter data consisting of discrete parameter value data;    sampling a selected set of parameter value data from each of the series of parameter data according to at least one specified criterion;    associating each of a selected set of parameter value data with a corresponding selected set of parameter value data, thereby to generate a combined parameter data packet representing the combined at least two selected sets of parameter value data;    generating a data tag indicative of a characteristic of the sampled data and appending it to the data packet; and    routing selected tagged data packets to selected destinations in response to operator-selected instructions.    
   
   
       6 . A method according to  claim 5 , wherein the parameter data consist of at least one of the following: position data, time data, range data, temperature data, reflectivity data, and mass data.  
   
   
       7 . A method according to  claim 5 , wherein the at least one specified criterion is based upon time division multiplexing.