System and method for monitoring and managing logistics employing global positioning subsystem

• US 20030151546A1
• Filed: 06/13/2002
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Alex, Yang, Xiaobing, Luo, David, Hu, Cheng-Min
• Granted Patent: US 6,753,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.07
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring and controlling transportation of material. The system comprises a central managing device (130), a vehicle information inputting device (110), a material information inputting device (120), a central monitoring device (140), and a global positioning subsystem. Information input through the vehicle information inputting device and the material information inputting device is stored in the central managing device and can be accessed by the central monitoring device. Information on current location of a vehicle (180) transporting material is sent to a web server (150) via the global positioning subsystem and accessed by the central monitoring device. The central monitoring device can control logistics by checking whether the current location of the vehicle is along a predetermined route of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A logistics monitoring and controlling system for monitoring transportation of material, the system comprising:

a central managing device for managing information on vehicles serving for an organization and information on material transported by the vehicles;

a vehicle information inputting device for inputting the information on the vehicles to the central managing device;

a material information inputting device for inputting the information on the material transported by the vehicles to the central managing device;

a central monitoring device for monitoring transportation of the material by tracking movement of the vehicles; and

a global positioning subsystem for providing current locations of the vehicles serving for the organization.

2. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the central monitoring device comprises a logistics monitoring computer, a material information display computer, and a vehicle information display computer.

3. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the central monitoring device further comprises a monitoring platform for sending a request to the global positioning subsystem for current location information on any of the vehicles.

4. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the global positioning subsystem comprises vehicle locators fixed on the vehicles for sending location information on the vehicles to a satellite of the global positioning subsystem.

5. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the vehicle locators have Subscriber Identity Module cards for identification of the vehicle locators by the central monitoring device.

6. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the global positioning subsystem further comprises a receiving device for receiving the location information on the vehicles sent from the satellite of the global positioning subsystem.

7. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the central monitoring device is linked to the central managing device via an intranet.

8. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the vehicle information display computer and the material information display computer in the central monitoring device are linked to the central managing device for accessing information on the vehicles and information on the material.

9. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein information on each of the vehicles comprises license plate number, owner of the vehicle, group of the vehicle, vehicle type, and SIM card number of a vehicle locator fixed on the vehicle.

10. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information on the material comprises bill of material number, order number, material number, material name, units of material, quantity, and route for transportation.

11. The logistics monitoring and controlling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the central monitoring device is linked to the global positioning subsystem via a network, the network comprising the Internet, an intranet, or a combination thereof.

12. A logistics monitoring and controlling method for monitoring transportation of material using a global positioning subsystem, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) in putting information on a vehicle serving for an organization to a central managing device via a vehicle information inputting device;

(b) in putting information on material transported by the vehicle via a material information inputting device when the vehicle sets out;

(c) a monitoring platform in a central monitoring device sending a request to the global positioning subsystem for current location information on t he vehicle;

(d) the global positioning subsystem obtaining the current location information on the vehicle;

(e) the global positioning subsystem sending the current location information on the vehicle to the central monitoring device via a network; and

(f) the central monitoring device checking whether a current location of the vehicle is along a predetermined route of the vehicle.

13. The logistics monitoring and controlling method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the step of:

sending an alarm from the central monitoring device if the current location of the vehicle is not along the predetermined route.

14. The logistics monitoring and controlling method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the step of:

replaying a route along which the vehicle has traveled if the vehicle does not arrive at a predetermined destination in time.

16. The logistics monitoring and controlling method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of the global positioning subsystem obtaining the current location information on the vehicle comprises the steps of:

(d1) a vehicle locator of the global positioning subsystem receiving the request for the current location information on the vehicle sent from the monitoring platform;

(d2) the vehicle locator of the global positioning subsystem sending the location information on the vehicle to a satellite of the global positioning subsystem;

(d3) the satellite of the global positioning subsystem sending the location information on the vehicle to a receiving device on the ground; and

(d4) the receiving device on the ground sending the location information on the vehicle to a web server.

17. A monitoring method for controlling a vehicle transportation, comprising the steps of:

providing a monitoring platform of a central monitoring device sending a request for a vehicle location information;

providing a moving vehicle with a vehicle locator receiving said request and sending the vehicle location information to a satellite of a global positioning system;

having said satellite send said vehicle location information to a receiving device;

having said receiving device send said vehicle location information to a web server; and

having said central monitoring device access said vehicle location information via said web server.