EP-4738035-A1 - RF TRANSCEIVERS CONNECTIVITY ENABLING SMART MOVERS MONITORING IN MANUFACTURING LINES

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for manufacturing lines are provided, particularly to monitoring the status of a manufacturing line using smart movers with RF transceivers. A mover for a manufacturing line may include at least one sensor configured to generate sensor data and a mover RF transceiver configured to transmit a mover signal associated with the sensor data to an anchor RF transceiver of a first anchor point of a plurality of anchor points. The mover is configured to move along a track of a manufacturing line. The mover may carry a load along the manufacturing line from one station to another. Multiple anchor points are arranged along the track. As the mover moves along the track, the mover pairs with an anchor point and transmits one or more mover signals to the anchor points. The mover signals include data about mover health or mover load health.

Inventors

• PULEO, Salvatore Maria
• LA ROSA, FABRIZIO
• BRANCIFORTE, MARCO MARIA
• DI PIETRO, Alessandra
• Abbate, Nunzio

Assignees

• STMicroelectronics International N.V.

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20251017

Claims (15)

1. A mover for a manufacturing line comprising: at least one sensor configured to generate sensor data; a mover RF transceiver configured to transmit a first mover signal associated with the sensor data to a first anchor RF transceiver of a first anchor point of a plurality of anchor points; and wherein the mover is configured to move along a track of a manufacturing line.
2. The mover for a manufacturing line of claim 1 further comprising: a controller configured to control communication between the mover RF transceiver and the at least one sensor.
3. The mover for a manufacturing line of claim 1 or 2, wherein the mover RF transceiver is configured to communicate at a radio frequency between 40 GHz and 75 GHz with wavelengths between 7.5 millimeters and 4 millimeters.
4. The mover for a manufacturing line of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first mover signal is configured to be 2 milliseconds or less.
5. The mover for a manufacturing line of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first mover signal includes raw data generated by a sensor or includes mover health data or mover load health data generated based on raw data generated by a sensor.
6. The mover for a manufacturing line of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the mover is further configured to receive, from the first anchor RF transceiver, a first acknowledgement signal transmitted in response to the first mover signal.
7. The mover for a manufacturing line of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first mover signal includes an alert signal associated with the sensor data exceeding a first threshold.
8. A manufacturing line system comprising: a track; a plurality of anchor points located along the track, wherein each anchor point comprises an anchor RF transceiver; at least one mover according to any of claims 1 to 7, configured to move along the track of the manufacturing line system, wherein, in each movern the mover RF transceiver is configured to transmit the first mover signal associated with the sensor data to the anchor RF transceiver of a first anchor point of the plurality of anchor points of the manufacturing line system.
9. The manufacturing line system of claim 8, wherein each anchor RF transceiver and each mover RF transceiver are configured to communicate at a radio frequency between 40 GHz and 75 GHz with wavelengths between 7.5 millimeters and 4 millimeters.
10. A method comprising: moving, by a mover, along a track of a manufacturing line towards a first anchor point, wherein the mover comprises at least one sensor and a mover RF transceiver; and transmitting, by the mover RF transceiver of the mover to a first anchor RF transceiver of the first anchor point, a first mover signal associated with sensor data generated by the at least one sensor.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the mover further comprises a controller configured to control communication between the mover RF transceiver and the at least one sensor.
12. The method of claim 10 or 11, wherein the transmitting of the first mover signal is at a radio frequency between 40 GHz and 75 GHz with wavelengths between 7.5 millimeters and 4 millimeters.
13. The method of any of claims 10 to 12, wherein the first mover signal is 2 milliseconds or less.
14. The method of any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the first mover signal includes raw data generated by a sensor or includes mover health data or mover load health data generated based on raw data generated by a sensor.
15. The method of any of claims 10 to 14, further comprising: receiving, by mover RF transceiver and from the first anchor RF transceiver, a first acknowledgement signal transmitted by the first anchor point in response to the first mover signal.

Description

TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to manufacturing lines, particularly to monitoring the status of a manufacturing line using smart movers with RF transceivers. BACKGROUND Manufacturing lines may use movers or shuttle conveyors to move loads along the manufacturing line between multiple stations. A mover of a platform that moves around or along a track. Conventional monitoring of the status of the manufacturing line and manufacturing processes may occur at specific phases or stops where a mover stops at a manufacturing station where an operation occurs on a mover load, such as a manufactured object or manufactured device. Such conventional monitoring, however, fails to monitor the status and health of a mover during transit or movement of the mover along the track between manufacturing stations. The lack of continuous monitoring leads to unobserved issues, such as vibrations and temperature changes, when a manufacturing line system has no information about the mover or the load(s) carried by the mover, such as position, temperature, health status, and other data which could be fundamental to prevent damages, downtimes, and/or to make smarter and more autonomous the overall system. Conventional systems may also use wired sensors placed aside of the lines to avoid limiting the movement of the movers. Conventional manufacturing lines may utilize wireless connectivity via Internet of Things (IoT) nodes, Bluetooth, and/or Wi-Fi connectivity. But such conventional manufacturing lines using these types of communication are required to utilize multiple gateways and complex network infrastructure to support such connectivity, which introduces latency in pairing and transmitting signals from a mover to a gateway of a monitoring system. Additionally, such network infrastructure is burdensome and costly to set up and maintain. The inventors have identified numerous areas of improvement in the existing technologies and processes, which are the subjects of embodiments described herein. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these deficiencies, challenges, and problems have been solved by developing solutions that are included in embodiments of the present disclosure, some examples of which are described in detail herein. BRIEF SUMMARY Various embodiments described herein relate to systems, apparatuses, and methods for manufacturing lines, particularly to monitoring the status of a manufacturing line using smart movers with RF transceivers. As described herein, a smart mover may allow for direct communication, such as communicating data from or associated with one or more sensors on the mover. In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, an example mover for a manufacturing line is provided. The mover for the manufacturing line comprises: at least one sensor configured to generate sensor data; a mover RF transceiver configured to transmit a first mover signal associated with the sensor data to a first anchor RF transceiver of a first anchor point of a plurality of anchor points; and wherein the mover is configured to move along a track of a manufacturing line. In some embodiments, the mover further comprises a controller configured to control communication between the mover RF transceiver and the at least one sensor. In some embodiments, the mover RF transceiver is configured to communicate at a radio frequency between 40 GHz and 75 GHz with wavelengths between 7.5 millimeters and 4 millimeters. In some embodiments, the first mover signal is configured to be 2 milliseconds or less. In some embodiments, the first mover signal includes raw data generated by a sensor or includes mover health data or mover load health data generated based on raw data generated by a sensor. In some embodiments, the mover is further configured to receive, from the first anchor RF transceiver, a first acknowledgement signal transmitted in response to the first mover signal. In some embodiments, the first mover signal includes an alert signal associated with the sensor data exceeding a first threshold. In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, an example manufacturing line system is provided. The manufacturing line system comprises: a track; a plurality of anchor points located along the track, wherein each anchor point comprises an anchor RF transceiver; at least one mover configured to move along the track, wherein each mover comprises: at least one sensor configured to generate sensor data; a mover RF transceiver configured to transmit a first mover signal associated with the sensor data to a first anchor RF transceiver of a first anchor point of the plurality of anchor points. In some embodiments, each mover further comprises a controller configured to control communication between the mover RF transceiver and the at least one sensor. In some embodiments, each anchor RF transceiver and each mover RF transceiver are configured to communi