Systems, methods, and mobile client devices for supervising industrial vehicles

• US 10,386,854 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2017
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekar, Kashyap, Waltz, Lucas B., Wong, Lisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Goldman, Richard A
• Application Number:
  US15/617,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20170269608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• Field of Search: 701 2, 701 1, 701118, 701 292, 701 293, 701 50
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0289 with means for avoiding collisions between vehicles vehicle fittings for automatically controlling speed including means for detecting potential obstacles B60K31/0008; avoiding obstacles by action on the steering system B62D; radar, sonar, lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

The embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for presenting information from a management server on a mobile client device to facilitate the management of industrial vehicles. Embodiments of the system can include a plurality of industrial vehicles communicatively coupled to the management server, and a mobile client device communicatively coupled to the management server. The mobile client device can include a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors. Encoded objects, vehicular objects, or combinations thereof can be presented upon the display of the mobile client device to present information from the management server.

Claims

1. A method for each of a plurality of industrial vehicles upon an inventory transit surface of an industrial facility, wherein each of the plurality of industrial vehicles is in communication with a management server, and wherein the management server is in communication with a mobile client device comprising a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors, the method comprising:

determining a localized position of each of the industrial vehicles with respect to the industrial facility;

receiving, automatically with the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device, a location descriptor indicative of the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles at a state;

displaying, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, a topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the topographical warehouse object comprises a geometric representation indicative of the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility; and

displaying, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, a plurality of vehicular objects contemporaneously with the topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device to represent the state, wherein each of the vehicular objects is positioned with respect to the topographical warehouse object based at least in part upon the location descriptor at the state, and wherein the displaying of the topographical warehouse object and the plurality of vehicular objects is near enough to real-time to permit corrective action to be taken quickly enough to mitigate the negative impact of latency caused by a communication of changing states of the plurality of industrial vehicles to the mobile client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, with the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device, an updated location descriptor indicative of the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles at a second state; and

repositioning, with the display of the mobile client device, the vehicular objects with respect to the topographical warehouse object based at least in part upon the updated location descriptor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles;

receiving, automatically with the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device, an operational descriptor indicative of the operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles at the state; and

wherein each of the vehicular objects is encoded based at least in part upon the operational descriptor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the operational descriptor comprises information indicative of a heading of each of the industrial vehicles; and

each of the vehicular objects is encoded to indicate the heading.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the vehicular objects comprises an encoded object that is shaped to indicate the heading.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the operational characteristic comprises data indicative of movement of a payload, and at least one industrial vehicle comprises at least one of forks and a trailer to move the payload.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein:

receiving, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, selection input indicative of a selected industrial vehicle; and

determining, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, the selected industrial vehicle based at least in part upon the selection input; and

displaying an encoded object indicative of the operational descriptor of the selected industrial vehicle via the display of the mobile client device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the operational characteristic comprises data indicative of RFID data from one or more landmarks; and

the encoded object is indicative of RFID data between the one or more landmarks and the selected industrial vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the industrial vehicles comprises one or more vehicular processors.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

navigating each of the industrial vehicles upon the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility to change states of the industrial vehicles.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more modules are communicatively coupled to the one or more vehicular processors via a bus, and the bus comprises at least a Bluetooth based communication strategy.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the management server, a travel path for at least one industrial vehicle based at least in part upon the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles; and

navigating the at least one industrial vehicle upon the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility based on the travel path.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting vehicular data comprising the localized position and one or more operational characteristics of each of the industrial vehicles to the management server, wherein at least one operational characteristic comprises directional data;

comparing the vehicular data with a rule; and

generating an alarm in response to a violation of the rule.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting vehicular data comprising one or more operational characteristics of each of the industrial vehicles to the management server;

comparing the vehicular data with a designated traffic rule; and

generating an alarm in response to a violation of the designated traffic rule.

15. A system comprising a management server, a plurality of industrial vehicles, and a mobile client device, wherein:

each of the industrial vehicles comprises a sensor system to determine a localized position of a respective industrial vehicle with respect to an inventory transit surface of an industrial facility;

each of the industrial vehicles and respective sensor system is communicatively coupled to the management server such that the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles is transmitted to the management server;

the mobile client device comprises a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors, and is communicatively coupled to the management server;

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives a location descriptor indicative of the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles from the management server; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute client functions to;

(i) display a topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the topographical warehouse object comprises a geometric representation indicative of the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility; and

(ii) display a plurality of vehicular objects contemporaneously with the topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein each of the vehicular objects is positioned with respect to the topographical warehouse object based at least in part upon the location descriptor, and wherein the display of the topographical warehouse object and the plurality of vehicular objects is near enough to real-time to permit corrective action to be taken quickly enough to mitigate the negative impact of latency caused by a communication of changing states of the plurality of industrial vehicles to the mobile client device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives an updated location descriptor indicative of a change in the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute the client functions to reposition the vehicular objects with respect to the topographical warehouse object based at least in part upon the updated location descriptor.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to each of the industrial vehicles execute functions to;

detect an operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles; and

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives an operational descriptor indicative of the operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles at the state; and

the one or more client processors execute functions to;

encode each of the vehicular objects based at least in part upon the operational descriptor.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein:

one or more processors of at least one of the industrial vehicles and a respective sensor system are communicatively coupled to each of the industrial vehicles execute functions to;

(i) detect an operational characteristic; and

(ii) transmit vehicular data indicative of the localized position and the operational characteristic to the management server; and

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives an operational descriptor indicative of the operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute the client functions to encode each of the vehicular objects based at least in part upon the operational descriptor.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the operational descriptor comprises information indicative of a heading of each of the industrial vehicles; and

each of the vehicular objects is encoded to indicate the heading.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each of the vehicular objects comprises an encoded object that is shaped to indicate the heading.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives selection input indicative of a selected industrial vehicle; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute the client functions to;

(i) determine the selected industrial vehicle based at least in part upon the selection input; and

(ii) display an encoded object indicative of the operational descriptor of the selected industrial vehicle via the display of the mobile client device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the operational characteristic comprises data indicative of RFID data from one or more landmarks; and

the encoded object is indicative of RFID data between the one or more landmarks and the selected industrial vehicle.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the industrial vehicles comprises one or more vehicular processors, and the sensor system comprises one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more vehicular processors.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more vehicular processor execute vehicular functions to:

navigate along the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility to change a state of the industrial vehicle.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein one or more modules are communicatively coupled to the one or more vehicular processors via a bus, and the bus comprises at least a Bluetooth based communication strategy.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the management server is configured to determine a travel path for at least one industrial vehicle based at least in part upon the localized position of each of the industrial vehicles; and

one or more vehicular processors execute vehicular functions to navigate the at least one industrial vehicle upon the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility based on the travel path.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein:

one or more processors of at least one of a industrial vehicle of the plurality of industrial vehicles and a respective sensor system communicatively coupled to each of the industrial vehicles execute functions to;

transmit vehicular data comprising the localized position and one or more operational characteristics of each of the industrial vehicles to the management server, wherein at least one operational characteristic comprises directional data;

the management server is configured to compare the vehicular data with a rule to determine a violation of a rule; and

one or more client processors execute functions to generate an alarm in response to the violation of the rule.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein:

one or more processors of at least one of a industrial vehicle of the plurality of industrial vehicles and a respective sensor system communicatively coupled to each of the industrial vehicles execute functions to

transmit vehicular data comprising one or more operational characteristics of each of the industrial vehicles to the management server;

the management server is configured to compare the vehicular data with a designated traffic rule to determine a violation of the designated traffic rule; and

one or more client processors execute functions to generate an alarm in response to the violation of the designated traffic rule.

29. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensor system of each industrial vehicle is configured to be adjustably positioned at one or more locations within or about a respective industrial vehicle.