Computerized wheel alignment system with improved stability and serviceability

• US 20040210362A1
• Filed: 04/20/2004
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hunter Engineering Company
• Original Assignee: Hunter Engineering Company
• Inventors: Larson, Timothy A., Korte, John K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,136,728 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/26 for testing wheel alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 2210/26 Algorithms, instructions, databases, computerized methods and graphical user interfaces employed by a user in conjunction with the wheel aligner

Abstract

An improved vehicle wheel alignment system includes at least one sensing device for acquiring automotive data, interface circuitry in communication with the sensing device for generating data representative of automotive data acquired by the sensing device, and a computer in communication with the interface circuitry. The computer is configured with an operating system adapted to provides one or more vehicle service or vehicle wheel alignment software applications with a protected operating environment, and which facilitates remote updating and servicing of the vehicle wheel alignment system.

Claims

1. An improved vehicle wheel alignment system including at least one sensor for acquiring automotive data, interface circuitry in communication with the sensing device for generating data representative of automotive data acquired by the sensing device, and a computer system having a central processor in communication with a memory, a data storage, and the interface circuitry, the improvement comprising:

the computer configured with a plurality of software applications, said plurality of software applications including at least one vehicle wheel alignment software application;

the computer configured with an operating system having a plurality of operating system components, said operating system adapted to provide each of said plurality of software applications with a discrete protected operating environment wherein interaction between each of said plurality of software applications is controlled by said operating system;

said computer further configured to receive data from the at least one sensor device through the interface circuitry, and to provide said data to at least said vehicle wheel alignment software application, and

wherein vehicle wheel alignment software applications is configured to utilize said received data to generate a representation of at least one vehicle wheel alignment angle for display to an operator.

2. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein the computer is configured with a restoration software application adapted to establish at least one backup corresponding to a system restoration point representative of a current state of said computer, said operating system, and said plurality of software applications, each system restoration point including sufficient information to restore said computer, said operating system, and said plurality of software applications to said current state at a subsequent time.

3. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 2 wherein said restoration software application is adapted to provide an operator interface to said at least one backup, whereby an operator may selectively restore one or more components of said computer, said operating system, and said plurality of software applications to said current state.

4. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 2 wherein said at least one backup is stored in a protected partition of the vehicle wheel alignment system data storage.

5. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 2 wherein said at least one backup is stored in an external data storage.

6. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 2 wherein said at least one backup is stored in a remote system data storage operatively coupled to the computer through a communications network.

7. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system components is adapted to establish at least one backup corresponding to a system restoration point representative of a current state of said computer, said operating system, and plurality of software applications, each system restoration point including sufficient information to restore said computer, said operating system, and said plurality of software applications to said current state at a subsequent time.

8. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 7 wherein said operating system component is adapted to provide an operator interface to said at least one backup, whereby an operator may selectively restore one or more components of said computer, said operating system, and said plurality of software applications to said current state.

9. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of software applications include at least two versions of said vehicle wheel alignment software application;

and

wherein said computer is configured with said operating system to enable simultaneous operation of each of said at least two versions.

10. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is operatively coupled to a communications network;

and

wherein said computer is configured with a software application to periodically identify availability of, and to obtain if available, one or more operating system components, software applications, or system settings through said communications network for subsequent installation.

11. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is configured with a software application to create a system configuration image of said operating system, said plurality of software applications, and one or more current system settings;

wherein said system configuration image includes information required for duplicating said operating system, said plurality of software applications, and said one or more current system settings on one or more additional vehicle wheel alignment systems.

12. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system components is adapted to create a system configuration image of said operating system, said plurality of software applications, and one or more current system settings;

wherein said system configuration image includes information required for duplicating said operating system, said plurality of software applications, and said one or more current system settings on one or more additional vehicle wheel alignment systems.

13. The improved wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is configured with a software application adapted to receive operating instructions from a second computer over a communications network operatively coupled to said computer.

14. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is configured with a software application adapted to guide an operator with a display of one or more predetermined steps required to complete a predetermined setup procedure selected from a set of setup procedures including, but not limited to, adding a hardware component to the system, installing a software application, or coupling the system to a communications network.

15. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is configured with a software application adapted to facilitate remote diagnostics of the vehicle wheel alignment system, said remote diagnostics optionally including one or more procedures selected from a set of procedures including installation of new software applications, installation of updated software applications, and deletion of one or more software applications.

16. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is configured with a Microsoft Windows-XP family operating system.

17. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein the computer is further configured with a protected store of data containing system restoration information representative of an initial configuration of said computer, said operating system, and each of said plurality of software applications, said store of data including sufficient information to enable restoration of said computer, said operating system, and each of said plurality of software applications to said initial state.

18. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 17 wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system components is a restoration component configured to selectively access said protected store of data to retrieve data, said restoration component further configured to utilize said retrieved data to restore one or more elements of the system to said initial state.

19. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system components is a file protection component configured to prevent unintended replacement or deletion of one or more data files in the data storage.

20. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein said computer is further configured with at least one external data storage device;

and

wherein said operating system is an embedded operating system stored in said at least one external data storage device.

21. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system components is a network awareness component adapted to detect the connection of a communications network to said computer, and to automatically configure said computer for communications with said detected communications network.

22. An improved vehicle wheel alignment system including at least one sensor for acquiring automotive data, interface circuitry in communication with the sensing device for generating data representative of automotive data acquired by the sensing device, and a computer system having a central processor in communication with a memory, a data storage, and the interface circuitry, the improvement comprising:

the computer configured with a plurality of software applications, said plurality of software applications including

(a) at least one vehicle wheel alignment software application, and

(b) at least one restoration software application adapted to establish at least one backup corresponding to a system restoration point representative of a current state of said computer and said plurality of software applications, each system restoration point including sufficient information to subsequently restore said computer and said plurality of software applications to a state corresponding to said current state of said system restoration point;

said computer further configured to receive data from the at least one sensor device through the interface circuitry, and to provide said data to at least said vehicle wheel alignment software application, and wherein vehicle wheel alignment software applications is configured to utilize said received data to generate a representation of at least one vehicle wheel alignment angle for display to an operator.

23. An improved vehicle wheel alignment system including at least one sensor for acquiring automotive data, interface circuitry in communication with the sensing device for generating data representative of automotive data acquired by the sensing device, and a computer system having a central processor in communication with a memory, a data storage, the interface circuitry, and a communications network the improvement comprising:

the computer configured with a plurality of software components, said plurality of software components including

(a) at least one vehicle wheel alignment software component, and

(b) at least one software component adapted to enable the computer to be controlled from a remote computer system in communication with the computer through the communications network;

said computer further configured to receive data from the at least one sensor device through the interface circuitry, and to provide said data to at least said vehicle wheel alignment software application, and

wherein vehicle wheel alignment software applications is configured to utilize said received data to generate a representation of at least one vehicle wheel alignment angle for display to an operator.

24. An improved vehicle wheel alignment system including at least one sensor for acquiring automotive data, interface circuitry in communication with the sensing device for generating data representative of automotive data acquired by the sensing device, and a computer system having a central processor in communication with a memory, a data storage, the interface circuitry, and a communications network the improvement comprising:

the computer configured with a plurality of software components, said plurality of software components including

(a) at least one vehicle wheel alignment software component, and

(b) a firewall software component adapted to facilitate authorized communications with the computer through the communications network;

said computer further configured to receive data from the at least one sensor device through the interface circuitry, and to provide said data to at least said vehicle wheel alignment software application, and

wherein vehicle wheel alignment software applications is configured to utilize said received data to generate a representation of at least one vehicle wheel alignment angle for display to an operator.

25. The improved vehicle wheel alignment system of claim 24 wherein said computer is further configured with a software operating system and wherein said firewall software component is an operating system component.