Information system for industrial vehicles

• US 10,013,815 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2010
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Inventors: Harshbarger, Aaron H., Tinnerman, David K., Wellman, Timothy A., Whitford, Jeffrey C., Winner, Dean E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boyce, Andre D
• Application Number:
  US12/751,120
• Publication Number:
  US 20100228428A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,016 Days
• Field of Search: 701 291
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 17/003 for fork-lift trucks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C

Abstract

Industrial vehicles communicate across a wireless environment and the wireless communication, data collection and/or processing capabilities of industrial vehicles are leveraged against robust software solutions to implement enterprise wide asset management functions, to integrate industrial vehicle data into existing enterprise workflows and/or to enable trusted third party integration into the enterprise for enhanced asset and/or workflow management. Still further, wireless communication, data collection and/or processing capabilities of industrial vehicles are leveraged with robust software solutions that aggregate and analyze data across multiple enterprises and/or promote the exchange of information between independent entities.

Claims

1. A method of tracking usage of an industrial vehicle, the method comprising:

establishing configuration data for an hour meter that tracks usage of an associated feature of an industrial vehicle, wherein the configuration data includes at least one rule that is based on inputs selected from a user interface and that indicates when the hour meter is to accumulate usage measurements;

wirelessly communicating the configuration data from a server application to an associated industrial vehicle having a transceiver installed therewith for receiving wirelessly communicated messages from the server application;

programming hour meter settings on the associated industrial vehicle that define when usage measurements of the associated feature tracked by the hour meter are accumulated in accordance with the at least one rule of the configuration data wirelessly received from the server application;

operating the hour meter on the industrial vehicle to record usage of the associated feature according to the programmed hour meter settings; and

providing a reading to indicate usage of the associated feature.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein establishing configuration data for an meter further comprises:

configuring the at least one rule as at least one pre-condition associated with determining a triggering event to begin the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein establishing the configuration data for an hour meter further comprises:

configuring the at least one rule as at least one rule that defines a condition required for accumulating time by the associated hour meter.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein establishing the configuration data for an hour meter further comprises:

configuring the at least one rule as to include at least one exclude condition associated with the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein establishing the configuration data for an hour meter further comprises:

establishing the at least one rule specific to a corresponding selected industrial vehicle from within a fleet of industrial vehicles.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

wirelessly transmitting hour meter data back to the server application; and

querying the hour meter information stored by the server application to ascertain data regarding usage of the industrial vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein programming hour meter settings further includes using a processor on the vehicle that interprets at least one rule as a rule wirelessly received from the server application to create an hour meter that is executed on the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein programming hour meter settings further includes using a processor on the vehicle to operate the hour meter to track usage in a manner that is not measured by time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing configuration data further comprises establishing a rule to configure at least one time parameter associated with an meter for tracking usage of an associated feature of an industrial vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing configuration data for an hour meter that tracks usage of an associated feature of an industrial vehicle further comprises establishing a rule that instructs the hour meter to perform a select one of:

recording non-standard information using conditions; and

limiting collection of data using exclusions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing configuration data further includes:

enabling a pin within a graphical user interface;

assigning a name to the pin; and

using the name of the pin as a parameter of the rule.

12. A method of tracking usage of an industrial vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving configuration data associated with an hour meter that tracks usage of an associated feature of an industrial vehicle, from a server application, by an industrial vehicle having a transceiver installed therewith for receiving wirelessly communicated messages from the server application, wherein the configuration data includes at least one rule that is based on inputs selected from a user interface and that indicates when the hour meter is to accumulate usage measurements;

programming hour meter settings that define when usage measurements of the associated feature on the associated industrial vehicle tracked by the hour meter are accumulated in accordance with the at least one rule of the configuration data wirelessly received from the server application;

operating the hour meter on the industrial vehicle to record usage of the associated feature according to the programmed hour meter settings; and

providing a reading to indicate usage of the associated feature.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein receiving configuration data comprises receiving at least one rule that includes at least one of a pre-condition associated with determining a triggering event to begin accumulation of time by the transformed hour meter, a condition associated with the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter and exclude condition associated with the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter.

14. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

wirelessly transmitting hour meter data back to the server application.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein programming hour meter settings further includes using a processor on the vehicle that interprets the rule wirelessly received from the server application to create an hour meter that is executed on the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein programming hour meter settings further includes using a processor on the vehicle to operate the hour meter to track usage in a manner that is not measured by time.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving configuration data further comprises receiving at least one rule to configure at least one time parameter associated with an hour meter for tracking usage of an associated feature of an industrial vehicle.

18. An industrial vehicle comprising:

a power unit;

an operator'"'"'s compartment associated with the power unit;

a vehicle network bus;

at least one drive wheel coupled to the power unit controllably coupled to a motor controller, which is mounted on the industrial vehicle and coupled to the vehicle network bus;

a wireless transceiver mounted on the industrial vehicle and coupled to the vehicle network bus configured to receive configuration data from a server application, the configuration data including a rule associated with an hour meter that tracks usage of an associated feature of the industrial vehicle, wherein the rule is based on inputs selected from a user interface and indicates when the hour meter is to accumulate measurements;

a processor mounted on the industrial vehicle configured to program hour meter settings that define when usage measurements of the associated feature tracked by the hour meter are accumulated in accordance with at least the rule wirelessly received from the server application, wherein the processor is configured to operate the hour meter on the industrial vehicle to record usage of the associated feature according to the programmed hour meter settings; and

a display viewable from the operator'"'"'s compartment, which is configured to provide a reading of the usage of the associated feature.

19. The industrial vehicle of claim 18, wherein the rule includes at least one of a pre-condition associated with determining a triggering event to begin accumulation of time by the transformed hour meter, a condition associated with the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter and exclude condition associated with the accumulation of time by the associated hour meter.

20. The industrial vehicle of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to program an hour meter to operate in accordance with at least the rule wirelessly received from the server application by interpreting the rule wirelessly received from the server application to create an hour meter that is executed on the vehicle.