Supplemental diagnostic and service resource planning for mobile systems

• US 20050096811A1
• Filed: 11/03/2004
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot IOT LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Thorson, Derral C., Bodin, William Kress
• Granted Patent: US 6,983,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/33
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• 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

Diagnostic codes from a vehicle or other system in transit are transmitted to an opportunity server, which forwards the codes to a supplemental diagnostic service provider. The diagnostic service provider determines if supplemental diagnostics software functions are available, and if so, downloads them to the vehicle. After executing the supplemental diagnostics, the vehicle reports updated codes to the opportunity server. Multiple cycles of selection, downloading and execution of supplemental diagnostics may be performed until fault isolation is achieved, following which the opportunity server issues requests for bids to potential repair service provides. Responding offers are received, coalesced and presented to the operator. The operator of the vehicle is presented with one or more coalesced offers, upon selection of which, a service is scheduled.

Claims

1. A method for providing an enhanced diagnostic service for mobile systems comprising the steps of:

determining if any downloadable supplemental diagnostic functions are available to isolate a failure according to a service signal from a mobile system;

downloading one or more available supplemental diagnostic functions to said mobile system for execution;

coalescing one or more offers for a repair service according to results of said execution of said downloaded functions; and

presenting said coalesced offers to an operator of said mobile system.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

determining one or more service points in the vicinity of the mobile system, and estimated time(s) of arrival at said service points; and

issuing one or more requests for bids for said repair service to one or more provider parties in said vicinity; and

performing enterprise resource planning for said repair service with one of said responding providers.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein said step of issuing one or more requests for bids comprises consulting one or more user profiles and one or more provider profiles to determine which, if any, provider parties are qualified to receive a request for bid for the indicated repair need.

4. A method for providing enhanced mobile system diagnostics responsive to a service signal from a mobile system indicating the location of the mobile system and a general need for service, the method comprising the steps of:

analyzing a service signal to determine if any downloadable supplemental diagnostic functions are available to isolate a failure;

selecting said available supplemental diagnostic function(s); and

downloading said selected supplemental diagnostic function to said mobile system for execution.

5. The method as set forth in claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

determining one or more service points in the vicinity of the mobile system, and estimated time(s) of arrival at said service points;

issuing one or more requests for bids for said repair service to one or more provider parties;

coalescing one or more offers for said repair service received from said provider parties;

presenting said coalesced offers to an operator of said mobile system; and

performing enterprise resource planning for said repair service with one of said responding providers.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5 wherein said step of issuing one or more requests for bids comprises consulting one or more user profiles and one or more provider profiles to determine which, if any, provider parties are qualified to receive a request for bid for the indicated repair need.

7. The method as set forth in claim 5 further comprising repeating said steps of receiving a signal from a mobile vehicle, selecting and downloading supplemental diagnostic functions.

8. A computer readable medium encoded with software for providing enhanced mobile system diagnostics responsive to a service signal from a mobile system indicating the location of the mobile system and a general need for service, said software performing the steps of:

analyzing a service signal to determine if any downloadable supplemental diagnostic functions are available to isolate a failure;

selecting said available supplemental diagnostic function(s); and

downloading said selected supplemental diagnostic function to said mobile system for execution.

9. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 further comprising software for performing the steps of:

determining one or more service points in the vicinity of the mobile system, and estimated time(s) of arrival at said service points;

issuing one or more requests for bids for said repair service to one or more provider parties;

coalescing one or more offers for said repair service received from said provider parties;

presenting said coalesced offers to an operator of said mobile system; and

performing enterprise resource planning for said repair service with one of said responding providers.

10. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 9 wherein said software for issuing one or more requests for bids comprises software for consulting one or more user profiles and one or more provider profiles to determine which, if any, provider parties are qualified to receive a request for bid for the indicated repair need.

11. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 9 further comprising software for repeating said steps of receiving a signal from a mobile vehicle, selecting and downloading supplemental diagnostic functions.

12. A system for arranging for diagnosing failures and faults of a mobile system while said mobile system is in transit, said system comprising:

an opportunity server communicably disposed between said mobile system and one or more provider servers;

a repair service need message receptor cooperative with said opportunity server for receiving one or more trouble codes from a mobile system;

a diagnostic request generator disposed within said opportunity server for forwarding one or more trouble codes to one or more provider servers; and

one or more provider servers configured to receive said trouble codes from said request generator, and having a repository of supplemental diagnostic software functions, a selector for selecting a function from said repository, and a supplemental diagnostic function transmitter for downloading one or more selected diagnostic functions to said mobile system.

13. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein said opportunity server further comprises:

a diagnostic system on board said mobile system having a location resolver, said diagnostic system having a wireless networking interface for transmitting repair service need messages and receiving executable software;

a bid request generator/transmitter, an offer receptor, an offer coalescer/transmitter, a user selection receptor, and an order confirmer such that needs for service by said mobile system may be brokered on behalf of an operator of said vehicle, and may be scheduled for future consumption by said operator according to an accepted offer.

14. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said diagnostic system comprises a global positioning system.

15. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said diagnostic system comprises a location based services system.

16. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said diagnostic system comprises a vehicle electronic control module.

17. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein said provider servers comprise networked enterprise servers for querying for service action quotes and offers over the Internet.

18. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein said opportunity server further comprises a set of user profiles and a set of provider profiles, and a profile analyzer for selecting one or more providers to receive requests for bids according to provider profiles matching preferences specified in said user profiles, and conditions of said mobile system selected from the group of location of the mobile system, direction and speed of travel of the mobile system, and make-and-model of the mobile system.