System and method for lot based processing and tracking in a container security system using wireless communications

• US 20070115115A1
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Globaltrak LLC (ORBCOMM Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: System Planning Corporation
• Inventors: Meyers, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 7,623,029 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.130
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

A system and method for tracking a plurality of shipping containers which are designated as a specific group or lot is provided. The system may use the receiver range of a short range wireless communications device to track containers among themselves, or alternatively use a global positioning device in conjunction with a long range satellite or cellular communications device to report position back to a central monitoring station which utilizes a centralized method for tracking the container lots. An alarm condition is generated if any given container gets separated from the group or lot.

Claims

1. A system and method for providing the monitoring and tracking a plurality of containers organized in groups or lots comprising:

a short range wireless communications device associated with each container, each short range wireless communication device including a transmitter element and a complementary receiver element;

at least a long range communications device communications device associated with each container;

a position determination element;

a control element which dynamically tracks and reports certain groups or lots of containers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the short range wireless communications device located on each container is capable of transmitting and receiving data and messages via a radio frequency signal at a maximum predetermined distance from a few feet to a several hundred feet.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a short range wireless communication protocol comprises any one of standards including Bluetooth, Zigbee, 802.11 series, and a proprietary short range wireless channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the long range communications device comprises a cellular communications device including a transmitter element and a complementary receiver element located on each container, capable of transmitting data and messages to a central monitoring station, and receiving data and messages from the central monitoring station.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the cellular communications device implements one of a cellular standard and a proprietary wireless protocol and network suited to transmit data over a network between long distances of at least hundreds of miles.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the long range communications device comprises a satellite communications device including a transmitter element and a receiver element, which may communicate with either a geosynchronous (GEO) or Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite in a network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the position determination element is a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver is capable of ascertaining the position on earth and reporting this back to the control element.

8. A method for using a short range wireless communications device for dynamic tracking of a plurality of containers organized into a group or lot using a short range wireless communications device associated with each container, the method comprising:

for any given lot of containers, initially programming each container with a unique container address and lot designation;

for any given lot of containers, initially programming each container with a preset table comprising all of the container addresses within a given lot designation;

querying each container for the container address and lot designation within the proximity of each short range receiver;

collecting reports back from neighboring containers, the reports indicating the container address and lot number of the neighboring containers;

comparing container addresses and lot designations against the preset table and determining if any containers are absent;

in the event of an absent container, reporting an alarm condition back to a central monitoring station.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method is performed on a peer based topology running on each container independently, and lot tracking is determined by a voting method and a open network request-acknowledge based protocol.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the method is performed on a master-slave topology such that at a given time a single container is designated as a master container controlling the lot tracking for all other containers within the lot, and all other containers with a specified proximity are designated as slave containers.

11. A method for using a position determination device for dynamic tracking of a plurality of containers organized into a group or lot using a short range wireless communications device associated with each container, the method comprising:

for any given lot of containers, initially programming each container with a unique container address and lot designation;

initially storing a unique table comprising all of the container addresses within a given lot designation in a database in a central monitoring station;

for each container, transmitting the container address, lot designation, and container location back to a central monitoring station using a long range communications device;

at the central monitoring station, for each container comparing location, container address, and lot designations against the preset table and determining if any containers are physically located at a distance greater than a predetermined value from all other containers;

in the event that one or more of the containers are located at a distance greater than a predetermined value from all other containers, reporting an alarm condition.