System for measuring a plurality of tagged assets on a plurality of physical assets

• US 10,223,706 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UTEC Survey, Inc. (KKR Matterhorn Bidco Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: UTEC Survey, Inc. (KKR Matterhorn Bidco Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cahill, David Patrick, Hammond, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawley, Talia F
• Application Number:
  US15/081,577
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

A system for monitoring at least one of tagged asset on at least one physical asset using a processor and data storage connected to a network, with at least one connected client device. The system displays at least one tagged asset from at least one independent survey set up on a layered coordinate system view with icons. The at least one independent survey set up can have at least one data capture device, such as a laser scanner, a camera, or both, a processor with data storage, and a receiver/transmitter enabling a user to link icons to a 360 degree panoramic view, which enables a user to view a visual representation of at least one tagged asset and connect to a library of tagged assets.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring at least one tagged asset on at least one physical asset, the system comprising:

a. an administrative processor and an administrative data storage connected to a network;

b. at least one independent survey set up, the at least one independent survey set up located proximate to the at least one tagged asset, wherein the at least one independent survey set up monitors and measures the at least one tagged asset and connects to a receiver/transmitter for transmitting monitored and measured information that includes images and measurements of the at least one tagged asset, and is configured to receive commands from the administrative processor;

c. at least one client device having a display, the at least one client device connected to the network to display the images and measurements of the at least one tagged asset from the at least one independent survey set up in a layered coordinate system view with icons;

d. computer instructions in the administrative data storage instructing the administrative processor to create a customer profile and store the customer profile in the administrative data storage, the customer profile comprising;

a customer name, a physical asset name, a named tagged asset, and a tagged asset location in a customer designated coordinate system of the named physical asset;

e. computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to;

(i) integrate the named tagged asset with the tagged asset location and the customer designated coordinate system of the named physical asset into a point cloud registration viewer; and

(ii) generate a plan for monitoring and measuring the at least one tagged asset of using the point cloud registration viewer and using the at least one independent survey set up while simultaneously generating the layered coordinate system view with icons that includes the named tagged asset, the layered coordinate system view with icons formed by layering a location of the at least one independent survey set up on top of the customer designated coordinate system for the named physical asset with the tagged asset of the at least one tagged asset, wherein the at least one independent survey set up is linked to a library of survey set ups in the administrative data storage;

f. computer instructions in the administrative data storage to link an icon of tagged assets to the at least one independent survey set up, wherein the at least one independent survey set up monitors and measures the at least one tagged asset, the at least one independent survey set up comprising;

(i) at least one data capture device comprising at least one of;

a laser scanner and a camera, wherein the camera is at least one of;

an infrared camera, a video camera, a high dynamic range camera, and a still camera;

(ii) a survey set up processor connected to the at least one data capture device; and

(iii) a survey set up data storage connected to the survey set up processor;

g. computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to link the icon of tagged assets to a 360 degree panoramic view enabling a user to view at least one of;

a 2D visual representation and a 3D visual representation of the at least one tagged asset; and

h. computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to connect the icon of the tagged assets to a library of tagged assets stored in the customer profile, the library of tagged assets comprising a plurality of asset names and specification information on the at least one tagged asset, the icon of tagged assets having at least one of;

a hyperlink, a video link, and a pictorial link to engage a data source connected to the network.

2. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to instruct the administrative processor to export all or a portion of the layered coordinate system view with icons to the at least one client device via the network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one data capture device comprises the at least one camera directed at the at least one tagged asset to provide stereoscopic images of the at least one tagged asset using the at least one camera positioned at a different height from another camera for the at least one independent survey set up and computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to capture and calibrate the camera images within the layered coordinate system view with icons enabling the user to take measurements of the at least one tagged asset using the at least one client device remote to the at least one physical asset.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one independent survey set up is mounted for dynamic survey measurement of the at least one tagged asset with the at least one independent survey set up mounted to at least one of:

a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned surface vehicles, and an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).

5. The system of claim 1, comprising virtual reality goggles connected to the network for receiving and displaying the layered coordinate system view with icons enabling the user to walk around the at least one tagged asset and to move from one icon to another icon in the layered coordinate system view with icons.

6. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions enabling the user with the at least one client device to draw a polygon on a portion of the layered coordinate system view with icons and then zoom in on all or a portion of the at least one tagged asset contained in the drawn polygon, the drawn polygon linking to data in the library of tagged assets.

7. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to provide individual user profiles within the customer profile, the individual user profiles comprising at least one of:

a user name, an access restriction, and contact information.

8. The system of claim 7, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to provide bidirectional communication between the individual user profiles within the customer profile.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor with a third party data storage to import at least one GIS mapping indicator or images from a third party processor connected to the network linking the at least one GIS mapping indicator into the layered coordinate system view with the icons to display at least one of:

a precise a geographic indicator or a precise geographic anomaly proximate to the at least one tagged asset.

10. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to connect to a customer processor with a customer data storage containing existing survey set up information and importing the existing survey set up information for the at least one tagged asset into the layered coordinate system view with icons.

11. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to provide an encrypted communication from the administrative processor to the at least one independent survey set up to the administrative processor.

12. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to create at least one memory tag for the at least one tagged asset or for the at least one independent survey setup, the at least one memory tag comprising user defined data on the at least one tagged asset.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one memory tag can be an RFID tag or a virtual memory tag.

14. The system of claim 1, comprising computer instructions in the administrative data storage to instruct the administrative processor to generate user customizable reports configured to interface with the user having the at least one client device to select and generate a report with user identified charts and user identified graphs for measured data from the at least one tagged asset on the at least one physical asset.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the library of survey set ups comprises:

a. independent survey set up identifiers;

b. data capture device identifier codes

c. transmission connection descriptions that indicate how the at least one data capture device can transmit the data to the network;

d. information on a time line of the at least one data capture device;

e. the customer name; and

f. the physical asset name.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the at one individual survey set comprises:

at least one physical property sensor comprising;

a sonar device, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, an accelerometer, a strain gauge, a salinity detector, a corrosion monitor, a motion detector for at least one of pitch, yaw, roll and heave, a curvature sensor, a magnetic field sensor, an ultrasonic flow sensor, a fluid or material thickness sensor, a humidity sensor, an infrared frequency detector, and an electrical current sensor.

17. The system of claim 1, comprising a support member for supporting the at least one data capture device, the survey set up processor, and the survey set up data storage enabling static data collection on the at least one physical asset for the at least one tagged asset.