FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for automatically identifying
loading/unloading locations and events by vehicles (such as trucks and the like)
without requiring prior knowledge of such locations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
When transporting goods by trucks or similar vehicles shipper of goods often would
like to independently and automatically know where the truck has unloaded and how
much time it has taken to unload in almost real time or as soon as possible after the
fact. At a small scale this can be accomplished by driver or recipient calling in the
location. However, not only is this process costly to scale to larger volume, but also
requires assuming reliability of information conveyed by the driver or recipient.
Hence the need for independently obtaining such information is always the need of
the hour.
With advent of locational technologies like use ofGlobal Positioning System (GPS) it
is possible to remotely know the position of trucks in near real time. Systems are in
use today that use the position information of trucks and check if the position lies
inside predefined set OF geographical area and use that as a proxy for
loading/unloading event: Entry timing into the region and Exit timing from the region
is the time spent for loading/unloading. Various improvements are possible like
ignoring shorter duration stay in regions.
The above approach does require the system of knowing the possible
loading/unloading regions/locations upfront. More importantly, even if the business is
such that the system can be informed of such locations, loading/unloading can still
happen at places different from the pre-defined locations.
Oursystem, in addition to using the above approach also uses the fact at most
loading/unloading points the truck will go towards the loading/unloading pointand
thenturn back around. Multiple such points of load/unload may be detected. These
2mayor may not be true loading/unloading event. Several additional checkscan be
applied to filter and to disambiguate between multiple such locations. Some examples
are minimum threshold oftime spent near turn-around or cross check with designated
loading/unloading destination proscribed in delivery order.
An astute observer may realize that the above approaches are only proxy for detecting
loading/unloading. An incremental check can beto put in sensors to see if the tipper
body is raised/lowered or truck gate is opened or if the weight changes or to detect
presence/absence ofmaterial on the load bed. However such sensors add incremental
costs and in practice knowing truck visiting unloading/loading area are good enough.
And even with above additional sensors, time spent waiting and the operation of
load/unload still needs to be measured.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a system to automatically detect the
location of the loading/unloading of vehicles and the time spent during
loading/unloading and wait time before the operation.
Another object of the present invention is to report the above information in real-time
or as close as possible after the fact.
Another object of the present invention is to monitor and produce a periodic and on
demand reports for loading/unloading, time taken during loading/unloading, transit
times.
Still another object of the present invention is to reduce overall specific unit cost of
obtaining above information commensurate with different degrees of reliabity needs.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In essence the present invention contemplates:
1. Recording geographical position of a GPS receiver coupled with memory and
a controller installed in truck over period of time.
32. The controller can also (optionally) receive and record indications from
sensors installed in truck indicating tipper being raised/lowered, gate being
open, presence/absence of sensors etc.
3. The same controller or another controller that communicates with the GPS
receiver's recorded data electronically and detects if the movement shows the
pattern of going towards a certain geographic area/point and returning from
there. The controller could be part of the contraption that includes the GPS
receiver or be physically attached to the receiver or it could be remote and
communicate with the contraption via wireless communication technologies
like GPRS.
4. The controller also reads the recorded movement data to see if the vehicle is
near the turn-around is stationary or moving over a very small distance to
guess the wait time before load/unload and after load/unload.
5. Electronically filtering and selecting amongst multiple such patterns using
various user configurable rules like duration and changes in value of sensors
to identify a most probable loading/unloading location and other likely points
of loading/unloading.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The summary narrated above and the following detailed description of the invention
can be understood with the drawings appended to this claim. The illustrations provide
the details of the invention. However, it should be understood that, the invention is
not limited to the arrangements shown. In the drawings:
Figure 1 shows the flowchart of the process of tracking the vehicles.
Figure 2 shows block diagram of a vehicle tracking systeminstalled in the vehicles.
Figure 3 shows alternative arrangements of different components of the vehicle
tracking system wherein some part of the system are installed in the vehicles while
some reside remotely.
4DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The embodiments of the present subject matter are described in detail with
reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present subject matter is not
limited to these embodiments which are only provided to explain more clearly the
present subject matter to the ordinarily skilled in the art of the present disclosure. In
the accompanying drawings, like referencealphabets and numerals are used to
indicate like components.
FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present subject matter that
shows the flowchart of the process of a vehicle tracking system (hereinafter may be
referred as contraption). The vehicle tracking system is provided with a Global
positioning system receiver (hereinafter may be referred as GPS receiver). This GPS
receiver keeps a record of the timestamp and geographical locations of the trucks as
the current position of the trucks change with respect to the previous positions. The
system checks if the direction of the vehicle reverses after the truck has been
stationary for a certain time period and if any of the installed sensors state a change
during the duration of the stop. This reversal of direction is considered as
loading/unloading incident and the stoppage just before and after this is considered as
duration for loading/unloading. In order to facilitate this check for any change in
direction, the system smoothens the path (known as localized smoothening) just
before the start and after the end of stop.
FIG. 2 illustrates the block diagram of the arrangement of the vehicle tracking
system, in an embodiment of the present subject matter. The contraption, fitted on
truck takes power from its power system. In an embodiment of the present subject
matter, the contraption may be powered from an internal battery (not shown) in
addition to power system of the truck. The mode of installment of the contraption to
the trucks should not be limited within the scope of the present subject matter. The
vehicle tracking system is also provided with various power adapters and distribution
modules.
5FIG. 2 further shows that the vehicle tracking system is provided with a
Global Positioning System (hereinafter referred as GPS) receiver (Module A) that
advantageously communicates with the GPS signals received from the satellites to
determine the geographic position along with the timestamp of the contraption and
therefore the vehicle. In an embodiment of the present subject matter, the vehicle
tracking system is also provided with an external input/output interfacer. The external
input/output interfacer can be connected to different sensors that can be fitted on the
truck. Some common sensors are proximity sensors indicating tipper being
raised/lowered, gate being open, presence/absence ofmaterial on the load bed, weight
sensors etc.
The geographic position and sensor state is stored in memory module B. In an
embodiment of the present subject matter, the vehicle tracking system is provided
with an electronic controller Dl that controls the GPS receiver module, external
communication module, the external input/output interfacer, and the memory storage
devices. In an embodiment of the present subject matter, some of the tasks within the
contraption are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through an
external communications module. The position and sensor state is sent periodically
via this communication module. It can also be sent upon getting a request from
external system or whenever sensor state changes.
The functionality of the contraption of the subject matter thus far described is
fairly well prevalent in the market place. The subject matter of the present invention
is realized by the second part of the electronic controller (D2).
The second part of the electronic controller examines the sequence of
geographical position and checks for complete reversal in direction of travel of the
vehicles. The efficient examination of reversal of direction can be achieved only
when the system detects that the vehicle has just started moving (by checking for
change in position beyond user configurable threshold). The change in direction can
be less than 180 degrees and still be considered as reversal ofmovement and is user
configurable. In an embodiment of the present subject matter, the direction change
can be detected by methods such as, not restricted to, smoothening the pathway
6through statistical techniques, checking direction from the ingress/outgressto the
point of stoppageat differently sized boxes around the point, the combination of both,
and the like. The second controller records these changes in the direction of the
vehicles. Precisely, the controller determines the waiting time of the vehicle on the
basis of the stationary position just before and after the point of reversal in
movement. The collected information is stored in the memory modules and then
subsequently disseminated via communication module C for further dissemination.
The two parts of the controller can reside physically on the same system or can be
distributed, in an embodiment of the present subject matter.
FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the present subject matter, wherein the
vehicle tracking system is provided with an electronic controller split into two parts.
The first part of which controls the obtaining and recording data from the GPS
receiver and storing and exchanging the data with another system on a user
configurable basis. The first part is physically resident in the truck. And just as the
embodiment of FIG. 2 the controller is further equipped with an optional electronic
interface to externally mounted sensors wherein the interface can record value of
these sensors at the same timestamp as that of position. Alternatively, it can record it
when only a change happens in the sensor state.
In this alternative embodiment of the present subject matter, the second part
of the controller (D2) resides on a remote system. This second part has its own
communication module and memory module and communicates with the first part.
As in the first embodiment, in this embodiment, the second part of the controller
performs the checking of the reversal in direction of movement by examining the
sequence ofmovement in exactly same manner as described earlier.
The second part of the controller can also apply several filters to reject the
aforesaid reversal of movements as possible loading/unloading points. Some of the
examples includes:
Accept only if sensor is in certain state or has shown a sequence of states
Accept only if it happens or does not happen in pre-defined areas
Accept only if there is stoppage for a duration greater than the threshold
7It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the
embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept
thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as
illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the
appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all variations,
substitutions and changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency
of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

WE CLAIM:
1. A system for detecting loading, unloading, monitoring the duration spent
while loading/unloading without prior knowledge of such locations ,
comprising of :
(i) a location detector for detecting the vehicle's location over a period of
time;
(ii) processing devices which receive information detected by sensors; and
(iii) a controller to control the frequency at which location and sensor
states is obtained and accurately examine the sequential geographical
movement and identify reversal in movement direction and using such
reversal points as proxy for possible loading/unloading locations, and
thus the waiting period of vehicles during loading/unloading.
2. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim I, wherein the
controller is a single module.
3. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim I, wherein the
controller is split into two parts comprising a first part and a second part.
4. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
first part of the controller controls the frequency of obtaining the data the
basis of the fact that the frequency is user configurable.
5. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
second part of the controller examines the sequence of geographical position
and reversal in movement direction of the vehicles. These locations of
movement reversal are considered as location of loading/ unloading
96. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
controller receive and record indications from sensors indicating tipper being
raised/lowered, gate being open, presence/absence of sensors etc.
7. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
information about the load/unload event is stored in various memory storage
devices.
8. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
tasks or modules within the contraption are performed by remote processing
devices that are linked through an external communications module.
9. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
direction change can be detected by methods comprising smoothening the
pathway through statistical techniques, checking ingress/outgress at
differently sized boxes around the point, the combination ofboth, and the like.
10. The system for detecting loading, unloading, duration spent while
loading/unloading or travel of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein several
filters/selection criteria are applied by the controllers.