Method and apparatus for providing information pertaining to vehicles located along a predetermined travel route

• US 20040102896A1
• Filed: 11/27/2002
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Calamp Wireless Networks Inc. (CalAmp Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mobilearia (Wireless Matrix Corporation)
• Inventors: Mahesh, Subramanian, Dange, Milind M., Babichev, Alexander, Thayer, Peter A.
• Granted Patent: US 6,832,153 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries

Abstract

A system for tracking a fleet of vehicles, such as trucks or aircraft, includes a set of vehicle processing systems associated with each vehicle. Each vehicle processing system receives a travel route matrix from a remote server, and generates periodic vehicle position information which is compared with a propagating wave associated with different segments, or corridors, of the matrix. When the vehicle position is determined to lie outside the propagating wave and a geo-corridor at a particular point in time, alerts are sent to the server notifying the server of same. Corrective action can then be taken, such as remotely disabling the vehicle, or alerting a fleet manager.

Claims

1. A method for providing information regarding the location of a vehicle relative to a travel route, the method comprising:

defining a zone whose location varies in time relative to the travel route;

determining the location of the vehicle at multiple points in time;

comparing the location of the vehicle at at least one of the multiple points in time with a contemporaneous location of the zone; and

generating a notification signal when the comparison indicates that the vehicle location is outside the zone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification signal is sent to a server remotely located from the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the vehicle is determined onboard the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing is performed onboard the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing is performed by a server which is remote from the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft whose location is monitored during flight.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the location information includes altitude information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the location and/or size of the zone varies as a function of a geographical region associated with the zone.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the location and/or size of the zone varies as a function of one or more learning parameters associated with the trave route.

11. A system for providing information regarding the location of a vehicle relative to a travel route, the system comprising:

a server for generating a matrix associated with the travel route; and

a processing system, remote from the server, for generating position information and for comparing the position information with the position of a zone whose location varies over time, the processing device forwarding an alert to the server when the position information indicates that the position of the processing system is outside the zone.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the matrix is generated by the server and forwarded to the first processing system.

13. The system of claim 11, further including at least one vehicle in which the first processing system is disposed.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft, and wherein the position information includes altitude information.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the matrix includes one or more corridors corresponding to a geographical region associated with the travel route and through which associated zones are representationally propagated.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the propagation of each zone in an associated corridor is a function of the geographical region corresponding to the corridor.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the propagation of each zone in an associated corridor is a function of one or more learning parameters corresponding to the corridor.

18. A system for tracking one or more fleets of vehicles each having one or more vehicles, the system comprising:

at least one server for generating a geo-matrix associated with each fleet; and

a set of vehicle processing systems associated with each fleet, each vehicle processing system being disposed in a vehicle of the fleet and generating position information regarding the position of said vehicle at predetermined time intervals relative to a propagating zone defined by the geo-matrix associated with the fleet, the vehicle processing system notifying the server when the vehicle is determined to lie outside a geographical region associated with the propagating zone.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the vehicles are aircraft, and the position information includes altitude information.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is connected to the Internet such that fleet information can be obtained online.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the fleet information is specific to a fleet client.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the fleet client is authenticated before release of the fleet information.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the vehicle can be remotely disabled.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein notifying the server comprises sending “

left route”

alerts, and wherein system performance is improved by adaptation to historical data so as to minimize false “

left route”

alerts.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein system performance is improved by adaptation to historical data so as to minimize route deviation tolerance.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein notifying the server comprises sending “

behind schedule” and

“

ahead of schedule”

alerts, and wherein system performance is improved by adaptation to historical data so as to minimized false “

behind schedule” and

“

ahead of schedule”

alerts.

27. The system of claim 18, system performance is improved by adaptation to historical data so as to decrease an estimated delivery window associated with the arrival of the vehicle at a specified location.