Vehicle location tracking systems and methods

• US 10,559,210 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2018
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Incorporated (Verra Mobility Corp.)
• Original Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Incorporated (Verra Mobility Corp.)
• Inventors: Rivera, Jason A., Fox, Jason A., Grimwood, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Aziz, Adnan
• Application Number:
  US16/018,881
• Publication Number:
  US 20180374365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A vehicle location tracking system comprises a plurality of transceivers, a coordinator, and a plurality of identification tags. The plurality of identification tags are coupled to a fleet of vehicles to be tracked. The transceivers measure the strength of a signal emitted by an identification tag coupled to a vehicle and communicate the measured signal strength to the coordinator. The indoor vehicle location tracking system estimates the location of the vehicle based on the measured signal strength.

Claims

1. A vehicle location system, comprising:

a plurality of vehicle identification tags respectively coupled to a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle identification tag configured to emit an identification signal associated with one of the plurality of vehicles;

a plurality of driver identification tags associated with a plurality of drivers, each driver identification tag configured to emit a driver identification signal associated with one of the plurality of drivers;

a plurality of stall identification tags, each stall identification tag being located within a corresponding parking stall of a plurality of parking stalls, each stall identification tag being configured to emit a stall identification signal associated with the corresponding parking stall;

a plurality of transceivers to;

receive the identification signals from the plurality of vehicle identification tags, the driver identification signals from the plurality of driver identification tags, and the stall identification signals from the plurality of stall identification tags;

determine a signal strength associated with each of the received identification signals, the received driver identification signals, and the received stall identification signals; and

transmit a marker signal comprising a transceiver identification, a vehicle identifier, and the signal strengths; and

a coordinator to receive the marker signal from the plurality of transceivers, determine a location of one or more of the plurality of vehicles based on a comparison of the determined signal strengths associated with the received identification signals and the received stall identification signals, determine a location of one or more of the plurality of drivers based at least partially on the determined signal strengths associated with the received driver identification signals, and send directions to the one or more drivers comprising a map from the determined location of the one or more drivers to the determined location of at least one of the one or more vehicles, the determined location of at least one of the one or more vehicles comprising identification of a particular parking stall of the plurality of parking stalls.

2. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the determined location of one or more of the plurality of vehicles is further based on a comparison of the determined signal strengths associated with the received identification signals and the received stall identification signals at the plurality of transceivers.

3. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the location of one or more of the plurality of vehicles is further based on a comparison of the determined signal strengths associated with the received identification signals and the received stall identification signals at a subset of the plurality of transceivers.

4. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the coordinator transmits the determined location of at least one of the one or more vehicles to a personal electronic device.

5. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transceivers are further configured to send an estimated current location of at least one of the one or more drivers to a personal electronic device of the at least one of the one or more drivers.

6. The vehicle location system of claim 5, wherein the estimated current location of the at least one of the one or more drivers is relative to parking stalls of a parking facility and the personal electronic device comprises a smart phone of the at least one of the one or more drivers.

7. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of driver identification tags is coupled to a key.

8. The vehicle location system of claim 5, wherein the estimated current location of the at least one of the one or more drivers is based at least partially on a strength of a device signal between the personal electronic device and one or more of the plurality of transceivers.

9. The vehicle location system of claim 5, wherein the estimated current location of the at least one of the one or more drivers is based at least partially on a global positioning system signal received by the personal electronic device, wherein the estimated current location of the at least one of the one or more drivers and the determined location of one or more of the plurality of vehicles are to be displayed on a map on the personal electronic device.

10. The vehicle location system of claim 8, wherein the device signal is transmitted using Bluetooth.

11. The vehicle location system of claim 8, wherein the device signal is transmitted using Wi-Fi.

12. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle identification tags comprise radio-frequency identification tags.

13. The vehicle location system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle identification tags are passive.

14. The vehicle location system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle identification tags are active.

15. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the coordinator uses triangulation to determine the location of each of the plurality of vehicles.

16. The vehicle location system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transceivers form a mesh network to route marker signals to the coordinator.

17. The vehicle location system of claim 5, wherein the coordinator is further configured to send directions to the personal electronic device of the at least one of the one or more drivers, the directions being associated with navigating from the estimated current location of the at least one of the one or more drivers to the determined location of at least one of the one or more vehicles.

18. A vehicle location system comprising:

an identification tag coupled to a particular vehicle, the identification tag configured to emit an identification signal associated with the particular vehicle;

a plurality of stall identification tags, each stall identification tag being located within a corresponding parking stall of a plurality of parking stalls, each stall identification tag being configured to emit a stall identification signal associated with the corresponding parking stall;

a plurality of transceivers to receive signals from the identification tag and the plurality of stall identification tags;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations to;

monitor a signal strength of the received identification signal and at least one of the received stall identification signals at one or more of the plurality of transceivers;

determine a location of the particular vehicle based on a comparison of the signal strength of the received identification signal against the at least one received stall identification signal at each of the plurality of transceivers, the determined location comprising identification of the particular vehicle at a particular parking stall of the plurality of parking stalls;

receive a signal from a driver identification tag;

identify a current location of the driver identification tag; and

prepare directions from the current location to the determined location of the particular vehicle.

19. The vehicle location system of claim 18, wherein the determined location comprises a data corresponding to a map of a parking facility and a stall number within the parking facility.

20. The vehicle location system of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to identify the vehicle based on the signal from the identification tag, and send via one of the plurality of transceivers vehicle identification information and location information.

21. A method to track a vehicle location, the method comprising:

determining if a global positioning system tracking unit associated with a vehicle has a GPS signal strength above a target threshold;

receiving, at a plurality of transceivers, a vehicle identification signal from an identification tag associated with the vehicle and a plurality of stall identification signals, each of the plurality of stall identification signals being emitted from one of a plurality of stall identification tags located within one of a plurality of parking stalls;

determining vehicle information using the vehicle identification signal;

determining a location of the vehicle based on the global positioning system tracking unit when the GPS signal strength is above the target threshold and based on a comparison of the signal strength of the vehicle identification signal against at least one of the plurality of stall identification signals at one or more of the plurality of transceivers when the GPS signal strength is below the target threshold; and

transmitting the location of the vehicle relative to the plurality of parking stalls to a personal electronic device of a driver to assist the driver in navigating to the location of the vehicle.