TW201929582A - Positioning method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

A positioning method and a positioning system are provided. The positioning method includes the following steps: a first device constructs a Mesh network; a plurality of second devices join the Mesh network and transmit a message in the Mesh network. When one of the second devices sends a message, the rest of the second device receives and forwards the message as forwarding devices. And when another second device receives the message, it forwards the message containing the identity information of the forwarding device. The forwarded device identity information includes the identity information of one of the rest of the second devices, excluding the one of the second devices which initially sends the message. The first device receives a message containing identity information of the forwarding device sent by at least one second device; when one of the second devices is lost, the first device locates the lost second device according to the message containing the identity information of the forwarding device. The positioning method and the system of the invention solve the problem that the number of objects is small that can be managed and positioned in the positioning system in the prior art.

Description

Positioning method and positioning system

The invention belongs to the technical field of communication and relates to a positioning method and a positioning system.

In life, there are often cases where no keys, wallets, etc. can be found, and the elderly and children are lost. At present, most of them are solved by using positioning technology. The positioning technology commonly used in the prior art is implemented based on a Bluetooth connection, and is monitored by monitoring the connection status of the Bluetooth device. There are two main problems with this type of positioning: 1. The number of Bluetooth devices connected by communication protocols is very limited, usually only 6-8, which makes it impossible to manage the positioning of a large number of items; 2. Based on Bluetooth The communication distance of the communication is short, and the reliability is greatly reduced beyond 10m, that is, the device managed by Bluetooth must be concentrated around the center device, and therefore it is not possible to perform positioning within a large area.

The object of the present invention is to provide a positioning method and a positioning system, which solve the problem that the number of items that can be managed and positioned in the positioning system of the prior art is small and the range of the positioning is small.

To solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a positioning method, including the steps of: constructing a mesh network with a first device; adding a plurality of second devices to the mesh network and transmitting information in the mesh network. When one of the second devices sends a message, the remaining second device receives and forwards the message as a forwarding device, and when another second device receives the message, forwards a message including forwarding device identity information, Forwarding device identity information includes identity information of at least one of the remaining second devices except the one of the second devices; the first device receiving at least one of the second devices that includes the forwarding device identity information a message; when the one of the second devices is lost, the first device locates the lost one of the second devices according to the forwarding device identity information.

Optionally, the message sent by one of the second devices includes the identity information of the other second device.

Further, after the other second device receives the message, the step of forwarding the message including the forwarding device identity information includes: the other second device receiving the message sent by the second device other than itself The other second device detects whether the message includes forwarding device identity information; if included, the other second device forwards the received message directly; if not, if The other second device adds its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and forwards it out.

Further, after the other second device receives the message, the step of forwarding the message including the forwarding device identity information includes: the other second device receiving the message sent by the second device other than itself The other second device adds its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and forwards it out.

Further, when the plurality of the second devices join the Mesh network, the multiple second devices provide the identity information of the first device to the first device.

Further, the second device sends a message every interval set time; the first device receives a message including the forwarding device identity information every interval of the set time; when the first device exceeds the set interval When the time does not receive the message including the forwarding device identity information, it is determined that one of the second devices is lost.

Further, the specific step of the first device to locate the lost one of the second devices according to the forwarding device identity information includes: determining that the first device last received before the one of the second devices is lost At least one message that is sent by the one of the second devices and forwarded by the remaining second device, and includes the forwarding device identity information; and the forwarding device identity information corresponding to the forwarding device identity information is located according to the forwarding device identity information included in the message a location of another of the second devices; wherein the location of the one of the second devices is lost according to the location of the other of the second devices.

Further, the one of the second devices sends a message when the message is sent; and the other second device also uses the broadcast mode when receiving and forwarding the message as the forwarding device.

The present invention further provides a positioning system including at least one first device and a plurality of second devices; the first device is configured with a mesh network, and the plurality of the second devices are located in the mesh network and can be Transmitting a message in the Mesh network; the second device includes a sending unit and a receiving and forwarding unit, the sending unit is configured to send a message, and the receiving and forwarding unit is configured to receive a message sent by another second device and forward the message. When the sending unit of one of the second devices sends a message, the receiving and forwarding unit of the other second device can add its own identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and forward it when receiving the message and forwarding; The first device is configured to receive a message sent by at least one of the second devices, and configured to locate, when one of the second devices is lost, locate the lost one according to the forwarding device identity information in the message. Second device.

Further, the second device uses a broadcast mode when sending and forwarding messages.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention provides a positioning method and system, and the Mesh network can realize communication between nodes, and the Mesh network can connect up to 65,536 devices, and the coverage thereof is several hundred meters or more. Moreover, it is also possible to continue to increase the coverage area by adding nodes, thereby greatly improving the number of nodes that can be located in the positioning method and the area of positioning. Moreover, in the solution of the present invention, when a node's message is forwarded by another node, another node that forwards may add its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and then forward the message. When the one node is lost, the corresponding forwarding node can be quickly located according to the forwarding device identity information in the last sent message before the node is lost. The forwarding node is theoretically the closest node to the lost node, so that Searching around the forwarding node can find the lost node relatively quickly and accurately, thereby improving the speed and accuracy of the positioning.

A positioning method and a positioning system according to the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the drawings and specific embodiments. Advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent from the description and appended claims. It should be noted that the drawings are all in a very simplified form and both use non-precise proportions, and are only for convenience and clarity to assist the purpose of the embodiments of the present invention.

1 is a schematic flowchart of a positioning method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a structural diagram corresponding to a positioning method of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the positioning method of the present invention includes: constructing a first device 10 a plurality of second devices 20 join the Mesh network and transmit messages in the Mesh network; when one of the second devices 20 sends a message, the message may include the second device 20 of the second device 20 Identity information, so as to be able to quickly determine that the device corresponding to the message is the second device 20; at this time, the remaining second device 20 receives and forwards the message as a forwarding device, and when another second device 20 After receiving the message, forwarding a message including forwarding device identity information, where the forwarding device identity information includes identity information of at least one of the remaining second devices 20 except the one of the second devices 20; A device 10 receives at least one message sent by the second device 20 that includes the forwarding device identity information; when the one of the second devices 20 is lost, the first device 10 The device forwards the information to locate the missing identity of one of the second device 20.

The Mesh network of the present invention implements communication between nodes (each terminal device can be regarded as one node, that is, the plurality of second devices 20 described above), and the Mesh network can connect up to 65536 devices, and the coverage thereof is More than a few hundred meters, and can continue to increase the coverage area by adding nodes, thereby greatly improving the number of nodes that can be located in the positioning method and the area of positioning. Moreover, in the present invention, when a node's message is forwarded by another node, another node that forwards may add its identity information as a forwarding node identity information to the message and then forward the message, thereby When the one node is lost, it can quickly locate the corresponding forwarding node according to the forwarding node identity information in the last sent message before the node is lost. The forwarding node is theoretically the node closest to the lost node, so that the node can be Searching around the forwarding node can find the lost node relatively quickly and accurately, thereby improving the speed and accuracy of the positioning.

As an implementation of the present invention, when the second device 20 receives the message and forwards the message including the forwarding device identity information, the method may include the following steps: the other second device 20 receives the message. a message sent by the second device 20 other than itself; wherein the other second device 20 detects whether the message includes forwarding device identity information; if included, the other second device 20 will receive The message is forwarded directly; if not, the other second device 20 adds its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and forwards it out. The advantage of such a layout is that, when the message of one of the second devices 20 is guaranteed to be forwarded, only the second device 20 that receives the message directly from the one of the second devices 20 can forward its identity information. The device identity information is added to the message and forwarded out, and the second device 20 that theoretically receives the message directly from the one of the second devices 20 is the second device 20 that is closest to the one of the second devices 20, therefore, In the subsequent forwarding, the forwarding device identity message only includes the identity information of the second device 20 that is closest to the one of the second devices 20. On the one hand, the data amount of the forwarded message can be reduced, and the bearer of the Mesh network is reduced. On the other hand, when one of the second devices 20 is lost, the location of the second device 20 closest to the lost device can also be directly located according to the forwarding device identity information, thereby quickly locating the location of the lost device.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to other forwarding setting manners. For example, as another implementation manner, each second device 20 can add its own identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message during message forwarding. In this way, after the other second device 20 receives the message, the step of forwarding the message including the forwarding device identity information is as follows: the other second device 20 receives the second other than itself. The message sent by the device 20; wherein the other second device 20 adds its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and forwards it out. When the second device 20 adds the identity information of the device to the message as the forwarding device identity information, the forwarding device identity information further includes time information, that is, all the forwarding devices can be sorted according to time, according to the time sequence. It can be determined which devices are closer to the one of the second devices 20.

In order to facilitate the first device 10 to accurately locate the second device 20, when the plurality of the second devices 20 join the mesh network, the plurality of the second devices 20 provide the first device 10 with its own identity. News.

When the second device 20 is managed by the positioning method of the present invention, in order to facilitate the determination of whether the second device 20 is lost, as one implementation of the present invention, one of the second devices 20 may send a message every time set interval. The forwarded message of the other second device 20 reaches the first device 10, and correspondingly, the first device 10 also receives a message including the forwarding device identity information every interval of the set time; When a device 10 does not receive the message including the forwarding device identity information within the set interval time, it may be determined that one of the second devices 20 is lost.

In addition, other schemes may be used to determine whether the second device 20 is lost. For example, the first device 10 may send a verification query message to the second device 20, and after forwarding by the second device 20, each second device may be reached. 20, the second device 20 responds again, and the response message is forwarded to the first device 10. After a second device 20 is lost, there will be no response message feedback, thereby determining that the second device 20 is lost. .

After the one of the second devices 20 is lost, the specific step of the first device 10 to locate the lost one of the second devices 20 according to the forwarding device identity information includes: determining the one of the second devices 20 Before the loss, the first device 10 finally receives at least one message sent by the one of the second devices 20 and forwarded by the remaining second device 20, including the forwarding device identity information; according to the message Forwarding device identity information locates the location of the other second device 20 corresponding to the forwarding device identity information; the location of the one of the second devices 20 lost according to the location of the other second device 20 .

In the solution of the present invention, whether the one of the second devices 20 sends a message, or the other second device 20 receives and forwards the message as the forwarding device, the message may be sent by using a broadcast manner. Thus, when one of the second devices 20 sends a message, there may be more than two second devices 20 receiving the message directly from the one of the second devices 20. At this time, the two or more The second device 20 adds the identity information of the device as the forwarding device identity information to the message, so that when one of the second devices 20 is lost, more than two different forwarding device identity information may be included. The message to locate the missing device makes the positioning more accurate.

The present invention also provides a positioning system, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, including at least one first device 10 and a plurality of second devices 20; the first device 10 is constructed with a mesh network, and multiple devices The second device 20 is located in the Mesh network and can transmit a message in the Mesh network. The second device 20 includes a sending unit 201 and a receiving and forwarding unit 202, where the sending unit 201 is configured to send a message. The receiving and forwarding unit 202 is configured to receive the message sent by the other second device 20 and forward it out; when the sending unit 201 of the second device 20 sends the message, the receiving and forwarding unit 202 of the other second device 20 receives the message. And forwarding, the identity information of the device is added to the message and forwarded to the message; the first device 10 is configured to receive at least one message sent by the second device 20, and used to When one of the second devices 20 is lost, the one of the second devices 20 that is lost is located according to the forwarding device identity information in the message. The second device 20 uses a broadcast mode when sending and forwarding messages.

Hereinafter, the positioning method and system of the present invention will be further described in detail by way of a specific example, and the advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent by the specific example.

This example takes a tour group as an example. A tour group usually includes a tour guide and a number of tourists. The children or elderly people in the tourists are often prone to falling behind. The positioning system and method of the present invention will help. The tour guide manages the tourists and finds lost passengers in time to retrieve them.

In this example, the tour guide is equipped with a mobile phone with a Bluetooth module (of course, in other schemes, it may also be a Bluetooth device and a terminal, the Bluetooth device can communicate with the terminal), and the mobile phone with the Bluetooth module is used as the first device. 10 constructing a mesh network, each of which wears a Bluetooth device (for example, a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone), which is added as a second device 20 to the Mesh network for message transmission, and identifies each visitor's identity information. Provided to the tour guide, the identity information may be the number of the device, or may be the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity, also known as the International Mobile Equipment Identity) of the mobile phone of the visitor. In this way, a positioning system is constructed.

As shown in Figure 4, five nodes a, b, c, d and e are schematically indicated, representing 5 visitors, each of which can send messages or receive forwarding messages. The forwarding of the five nodes is transmitted to the first device 10, that is, the tour guide, and the positions of the five nodes can be arbitrarily changed, that is, the tourists are in an active state. The following is an example of sending a message by node a, and forwarding messages by nodes b, c, d, and e. The real-time positions of nodes a, b, c, d, and e are as shown in FIG.

When node a sends a message, the message may include the identity information of visitor a. At this time, other nodes in the receivable range in which the node a sends the message may forward the message, and the size of the receiving range is determined according to the communication distance of the Bluetooth device.

At this time, the node b is the closest to the node a, and is theoretically the first to receive the message directly from the node a. At this time, the node b can verify the received message to confirm whether the forwarding device identity information is included. If the forwarding device identity information is not included, the node b adds its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and then forwards it out.

The node c receives the message forwarded by the node b. At this time, the node c can also verify the received message to confirm whether the forwarding device identity information is included. If the forwarding device identity information is not included, the node c can also identify the identity of the device. The information is added to the message as forwarding device identity information and then forwarded out. At this time, since the forwarding information of the node b already includes the forwarding device identity information (identity information of the node b), the node c can directly forward the message sent by the node b without adding the identity information.

And so on, after receiving the message, the node d and the node e perform an operation similar to that of the node c to forward the message, and finally the first device 10 can receive the forwarded message, where the message includes the forwarding device identity information (node b Identity information) and identity information of node a.

It should be noted that the node sends and forwards the message by broadcast. Therefore, the message sent by one node will be received and forwarded by all other nodes within its communication distance. Forward the message. For example, assume that nodes b and c are both within the communication range of a, and node b is closer to node a. At this time, the message sent by node a will be received by node b and node c, and both will add their identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message for forwarding, that is, at least two will contain different forwarding devices. The information of the identity information is transmitted on the Mesh network. In this case, in order to distinguish which node is closer to a, the time at which the node receives the message may be added in the forwarding device identity information, so that the node that first receives the message is closer to the node a. In order to more accurately locate.

In addition, the nodes b, c, d, and e may not be authenticated when forwarding the message, that is, if the received message does not include the forwarding device identity information, the identity information is directly added to the message, that is, A forwarding device identity information will contain the identity information of multiple nodes. In this case, we can also adopt the method of adding the time when the node receives the message in the forwarding device identity information, that is, it can be sorted by time, so that which node can be confirmed. Closer to node a.

In order to determine whether node a is lost, we can take a variety of methods to verify. For example, the node a can be configured to send a message every set time (for example, 2 minutes), and the message is transmitted to the first device 10 after being transmitted by other nodes (that is, delivered to the tour guide). At this time, the first device 10 also has an interval. Receiving, by the set time, a message including the forwarding device identity information; once the first device 10 does not receive the message including the forwarding device identity information when the first device 10 exceeds the set interval, the node a may be determined to be lost. That is, the visitor a lost. Certainly, the method may also be used to confirm whether the node a is lost. For example, the first device 10 may send a verification query message to the node a by another node, and the node a responds, and the response message is forwarded and then transmitted to the first device 10. When the node a is lost, there will be no response message feedback, and thus, it can be judged that the node a is lost.

When the node a is lost, that is, after the tour guide finds that the visitor a is lost, it immediately finds the message that the first device 10 receives the identity information of the forwarding device corresponding to the node a immediately before the node a is lost, according to the forwarding device included in the message. The identity information can locate the location of the node closest to the distance before the node a is lost, that is, locate the location of the node b. At this time, the location can be searched near the node b, and the lost node a can be quickly found. In this way, on the one hand, the tour guide can know in time whether there are tourists lost, on the other hand, you can also find out where the tourists were before the loss, so that they can quickly locate the lost tourists.

The other nodes b, c, d, and e are similar to the node a when they send a message, and are not described here.

In addition, the positioning method and system of the present invention can be applied to the management of articles, such as a wallet, a mobile phone, and the like, in addition to the tour group management of the above example, and these easily lost items can be managed by the above method.

In summary, the present invention provides a positioning method and system. The Mesh network can realize communication between nodes, and the Mesh network can connect up to 65,536 devices, and the coverage thereof is several hundred meters or more. Moreover, it is also possible to continue to increase the coverage area by adding nodes, thereby greatly improving the number of nodes that can be located in the positioning method and the area of positioning. Moreover, in the solution of the present invention, when a node's message is forwarded by another node, another node that forwards may add its identity information as forwarding device identity information to the message and then forward the message. When the one node is lost, the corresponding forwarding node can be quickly located according to the forwarding device identity information in the last sent message before the node is lost. The forwarding node is theoretically the closest node to the lost node, so that Searching around the forwarding node can find the lost node relatively quickly and accurately, thereby improving the speed and accuracy of the positioning.

The above description is only for the description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any changes and modifications made by those skilled in the art based on the above disclosure are within the scope of the claims.

10‧‧‧First equipment

20‧‧‧second equipment

201‧‧‧Send unit

202‧‧‧Receiving and forwarding unit

a, b, c, d, e‧‧‧ nodes

Steps S101, S102, S103, S104, S105, S106, S107, S108, S109, S110‧‧

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a structural diagram of a positioning system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of communication between second devices of a positioning system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of message transmission between five nodes according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (10)

A positioning method includes the following steps: constructing a mesh network by using a first device; adding a plurality of second devices to the mesh network and transmitting a message in the mesh network; and when the plurality of second devices are When the message is sent, the remaining plurality of second devices receive and forward the message as a forwarding device, and when the other of the plurality of second devices receives the message, forwarding the information including the forwarding device identity information a message, wherein the forwarding device identity information includes an identity information of at least one of the plurality of second devices other than the one of the plurality of second devices; receiving, by the first device, the plurality of second devices The message sent by the at least one device of the device that includes the identity information of the forwarding device; and when one of the plurality of second devices is lost, the first device locates the lost plurality of second devices according to the forwarding device identity information One of the. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the message sent by one of the plurality of second devices includes the identity information of the other of the plurality of second devices. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the step of forwarding the message including the forwarding device identity information after the other one of the plurality of second devices receives the message comprises: using the plurality of second devices The other one receives the message sent by the plurality of second devices except itself; detecting, by the other of the plurality of second devices, whether the forwarding device identity information is included in the message; if included, the plurality of The other of the second devices forwards the received message directly; and if not, the other of the plurality of second devices adds the identity information of the second device to the message as the forwarding device identity information And forward it out. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the step of forwarding the message including the forwarding device identity information after the other of the plurality of second devices receives the message comprises: using the plurality of second devices The other one receives the message sent by the plurality of second devices except itself; and adds the identity information of the plurality of second devices to the message as the forwarding device identity information, And forwarded out. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of second devices provide the identity information to the first device when the plurality of second devices join the Mesh network. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of second devices send the message every interval of a set time; the first device receives the message including the forwarding device identity information every interval of the set time; And when the first device exceeds the interval for the set time, the message containing the forwarding device identity information is not received, and then one of the plurality of second devices is determined to be lost. The locating method of claim 1, wherein the step of the first device locating the lost one of the plurality of second devices according to the forwarding device identity information comprises: determining the plurality of second devices Before the loss, the first device finally receives at least one message sent by one of the plurality of second devices and forwarded by the remaining plurality of second devices, including the forwarding device identity information; according to the message The included forwarding device identity information locates a location of the other of the plurality of second devices corresponding to the forwarding device identity information; and the plurality of locations that are lost according to the location of the other of the plurality of second devices The location of one of the second devices. The locating method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of second devices uses a broadcast mode when the message is sent; and the remaining plurality of second devices receive and forward the message as the forwarding device The broadcast method is also used. A positioning system includes at least one first device and a plurality of second devices; the first device is configured with a mesh network, and the plurality of second devices are located in the mesh network and can transmit a message in the mesh network The plurality of second devices each include a sending unit and a receiving and forwarding unit, the sending unit is configured to send the message, and the receiving and forwarding unit is configured to receive the message sent by the other plurality of second devices and forward the message; When the sending unit of one of the plurality of second devices sends the message, the receiving and forwarding unit of the other of the plurality of second devices can use one of its identity information as a forwarding device identity when receiving the message and forwarding the message. Information is added to the message and forwarded out; and the first device is configured to receive the message sent by at least one of the plurality of second devices, and to use the message when one of the plurality of second devices is lost The forwarding device identity information is located in one of the plurality of second devices lost. The positioning system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of second devices send the message and the forwarded message are in a broadcast manner.