Specification
This invention relates to a shipment watch and tracking cargo handling
device to monitor the position of vehicles at intervals on highways.
There are numerous disadvantages with the present system, some of
which are enumerated below:
When a vehicle leaves the starting station to reach a destination some
7/8 days away, the owner of the vehicle or its control office are
completely in the dark as to its position during this period.
In case of any breakdown on the highway or any other problem being
faced by the vehicle, the owner may come to know of this only after a
couple of days.
The owner is not in communication with the driver at all times and
hence cannot provide any direction to the driver in case of any
emergency.
Therefore the main objective of the present invention is to provide a
simple and effective system to read, record and convey the positions of
vehicles at intervals on the highways, to the owner of the vehicle or to
the consignor or consignee.
Another objective of the invention is to help tracking of Railway
Wagons using the same principle as described below. .
The present invention is also to provide voice and data communication
along the stations set up, for the purpose of monitoring, by way of
radio, satellite, telephone, pager and cellular telephone.
A further object of the present invention is to locate stations at retail
outlets of oil companies so that these locations become the nucleus
around which motels, service and repair stations and transhipment
centres can be set up.
According to this invention for Shipment Watch And Tracking Cargo
Handling, each vehicle is provided with a transponder (vehicle tag) to
monitor the position of vehicles at intervals on the highways. This
invention provides for a Multiple number of Tracking Stations with Tag
Readers installed at locations along the highways; Multiple number of
Query Stations at suitable locations and the Base Station, all
interconnected through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Satellite
connections and/or through Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) or via Internet account
to provide information regarding the location and other associated
details of the vehicles to the customer.
The nature of the invention, its objective and further advantages
residing in the same will be apparent from the following description
made with reference to non-limiting exemplary embodiments of the
invention represented in the accompanying drawings.
Figure -1 Schematic diagram of the shipment watch and
tracking cargo handling (SWATCH) system overview.
Figure - 2 Schematic diagram of the Base station detail.
Figure - 3 Schematic diagram of the Query station detail
Figure - 4 Schematic diagram of the Tracking station detail
The shipment watch and tracking cargo handling system as illustrated
in Figure 1, comprise of a Base Station (1) which is located at the
headquarter.
Query Stations (2) are situated at various important locations of the
country.
Tracking Station (3) are installed at regular intervals along the
highways. The Tracking Stations (3) are provided with tag readers
which receive signals from vehicle-tag equipped in a vehicle (8).
Fitment Centres ( 9 or 13) are located in the same city as the Query
Stations (2). At the Fitment'Centre, the vehicle is fixed with a vehicle
tag and the information is transmitted to the Base Station (1) for the
purpose of registration of the vehicle into the SWATCH system either
via PSTN or Internet route.
The above four distinct units of the system are linked to each other
through various means like Satellite (4), VSAT earth station Hub (5)
the Internet (7) and PSTN or POTS (6).
The Internet is linked to a fitment centre B (13) and to customer C (12)
with Internet account and to the Base Station (1) Router.
Similarly, Fitment centre A" (9) with telephone, Customer B (11) with PC
& Modem and Customer A (10) with telephone are linked to the PABX
system at the Base Station (1) or the Query Station (2) through PSTN
or POTS network.
The Base Station (1) details are shown in figure 2. The heart of the
Base Station (1) comprises of a Server (14) with a BS software, virus
protection software, RDBMS (14A), a back-up service (14B) and UPS
(14C). The server (14) is linked by a Local Area Network (LAN 15) to
Firewall (15A), Internet (7) through a Router (15B), workstation (15C)
with a software for server maintenance and accounting software,
another workstation (15D) for configuration and billing etc., Server
(15E) for accounting/billing and printer (15H) for necessary printouts.
The Firewall (15A) is linked to a modem rack (15F) and PABX (15G) to
VSAT terminal (16) which receives vehicle positions and communicate
with Query Stations (2) via VSAT (5).
The PABX (15G) is also linked through PSTN (6) to customer with PC
and modem (11) and customer with phone (10). A fax (17) is also
linked through the PABX (15G).
Figure 3 illustrates the Query Station (2) which has almost a similar
configuration as the Base Station (1). The system comprises of a
Server (18) linked by a local area network (LAN 19) to a firewall (19A)
and a multiple number of workstations (19E) with Query Stations
software, printer (19F) and to a VSAT (5). The firewall (19A) is
connected through a Router (19B) to a modem rack (19C), PABX
(19D)toVSAT(20).
A fax (21) is linked to the PABX (19D). The PABX (19D) is linked to
PSTN (6) and customer (11) with PC and Modem and customer (10)
with telephone.
Figure 4 illustrates the tracking station (3) installed at intervals along
the highways.
It comprises of a VSAT terminal (22) having a power source (23) of
220 Volt 50 Hz. A dish antenna linked to VSAT (5). The VSAT
terminal is connected to an externally mounted Tag Reader (25) with
RS 485 or RS 232 port.
The system is provided with a test tag (24).
In accordance with the present invention, the device to monitor the
position of the vehicles - the SWATCH system, provides the vehicles
with a complete fleet management service.
The service is to provide information regarding the approximate
location of their vehicles (8) when driving on specific routes between
metropolitan cities within the country. With this information the
Customers will be able to manage more effectively the shipment of
their cargo. The same system could be used by Railways for
monitoring the wagon movement.
The invention described hereinabove is in relation to a non-limiting
embodiment and as defined by the accompanying claims.
WE CLAIM:
1. A shipment watch and tracking cargo handling device to monitor
the positions of vehicles (8) where each vehicle is provided with a
transponder (vehicle tag) to monitor the position of vehicles at intervals
on the highways. This invention also includes Multiple number of
Tracking Stations with Tag Readers installed at these locations;
Multiple number of Query Stations (2) and the Base Station (1), all
interconnected through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) (5),
Satellite connections and/or through Public Switched Telephone
Network (PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) (6) or via
Internet connection to provide information regarding the location and
other associated details of the vehicles to the customer.
2. A device to monitor the positions of vehicles as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the base station (1) comprises a server (14) linked with
LAN (15) and accounting and billing server (15E), Workstations
(15D), (15C) and a firewall (15A) linked to customer (12) through
the Router (15B) and Internet (7) and to customer (10,11) through
modem rack (15F), PABX (15G), PSTN (6). The server (14) is also
linked to Query Stations (2) through VSAT (16, 5). However, the
VSAT (16, 5) network and PSTN (6) are neither connected to each
other, nor communicate between each other.
3. A device to monitor the position of vehicles as claimed in claim 2,
wherein the server (14) of the base station (1) comprises of a data
base (14A) back up device (14B) and UPS (14C).
4. A device to monitor the position of vehicles as claimed in claim 1
wherein the Query Station (2) comprises of a Server (18) linked
through LAN (19) to firewall (19A), multiple workstations (19E) and
VSAT (20). The firewall is linked to Router (19B) which is
connected to the modem rack (19C) The said VSAT(20) is also
connected to the fax (21) through a PABX (19D) and VSAT (20) is
linked to VSAT network (5) for Data transfer with base station (1).
The said PABX is linked to a fax (21) and PSTN (6) which serve
customer with phone (10) and customer with PC and modem (11).
However, the VSAT (20, 5) network and PSTN (6) are neither
connected to each other, nor communicate between each other.
5. A device to monitor the position of vehicles as claimed in claim 1
wherein the tracking stations (3) comprise of a VSAT terminal (22)
linked to VSAT (5) network and.an externally mounted tag reader
(25) in radio communication with the Tagged Vehicles (8) within a
range and a test tag (24) and a Power supply system (23) supplies
power of the system.
6. A shipment watch and tracking cargo handling device to monitor
the position of vehicles (8) as herein described and illustrated.
7. A device to provide information of vehicles (8), to the corresponding
customers, spread all over India, thorough Query Station (2), by
means of local telephone calls.
A shipment watch and tracking cargo handling device to monitor the positions of vehicles (8) where each vehicle is provided with a transponder (vehicle tag) to monitor the position of vehicles at intervals on the highways. This invention also includes Multiple number of Tracking Stations with Tag Readers installed at these locations; Multiple number of Query Stations (2) and the Base Station (1), all interconnected through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) (5). Customers will be connected through Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) (6) or via Internet account to provide information regarding the location and other associated details of the vehicles to the customer
