Work vehicle access monitoring and control system

• US 20080077299A1
• Filed: 09/25/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Leaf IP Incorporated (CNH Industrial N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Blue Leaf IP Incorporated (CNH Industrial N.V.)
• Inventors: Saleh, Zakaria I., McSweeney, Michael A., Arshad, M. Javaid, Adhikari, Prasenjit
• Granted Patent: US 7,873,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/50
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/308 Industrial vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/24 using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/003 Devices for transporting the soil-shifting machines or excavators, e.g. by pushing them or by hitching them to a tractor
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2045 Guiding machines along a predetermined path for graders E02F3/841; machines for construction of roads E01C19/004
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/26 Indicating devices E02F5/145 takes precedence

Abstract

An access control system for a work vehicle that has an engine and a location is provided, the system including location sensor that indicates the vehicle'"'"'s location and an electronic control unit coupled to the sensor that receives the location signal and selectively disables the engine based upon the vehicle'"'"'s position outside job site boundary'"'"'s or based upon the time of operation at a plurality of job sites, each job site having its own time of operation.

Claims

1. An access control system for a work vehicle having an engine and a location, the system comprising:

a location sensor on the vehicle, the sensor configured to provide a location signal indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s location; and

an electronic control unit coupled to the location sensor to receive the location signal, the electronic control unit further comprising an electronic memory configured to store data indicative of a plurality of non-contiguous job sites, and further wherein the electronic control unit is configured to permit operation of the vehicle within the non-contiguous job sites and to disable the vehicle when the vehicle leaves the non-contiguous job sites.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to shut down the engine when the vehicle leaves the plurality of non-contiguous job sites.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit is configurable to prevent the vehicle from being driven between two of the plurality of non-contiguous job sites.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic memory stores a boundary for each of the plurality of non-contiguous job sites.

5. An access control system for a work vehicle, the work vehicle having an engine and a location, the system comprising:

a location sensor on the vehicle configured to provide a location signal indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s location; and

an electronic control unit coupled to the location sensor to receive the location signal, the control unit further comprising an electronic memory configured to store boundaries of at least one job site, and further wherein the control unit is configured to shut down the vehicle engine when it leaves the boundaries and the control unit is configured to permit the vehicle engine to be restarted only after a predetermined interval of time has expired after the control unit shut down the vehicle engine for leaving the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to permit the engine to run for only a predetermined period of time after being restarted while the vehicle is outside the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to permit the engine to be restarted a predetermined number of times while the vehicle is outside the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to prevent additional engine restarts after permitting the engine to be restarted the predetermined number of times while the vehicle is outside the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to permit the engine to continue running upon restart for so long as the vehicle is outside the boundaries and traveling in a direction back toward the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor, and to shut down the engine when the vehicle is outside the boundaries and the vehicle turns away from the boundaries as indicated by the location sensor.

10. An access control system for a work vehicle including an engine, the work vehicle further having a location, the system comprising:

a location sensor on the vehicle configured to provide a location signal indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s location; and

an electronic control unit coupled to the location sensor to receive the location signal, the control unit further comprising an electronic memory configured to store the boundaries of a first job site and to store a first timer associated with the first job site, and configured to store the boundaries of a second job site and to store a second timer associated with the second job site.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the location sensor includes a GPS receiver.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to store in the first timer a value indicative of the amount of time the vehicle is located at the first job site, and wherein the electronic control unit is configured to store in the second timer a value indicative of the amount of time the vehicle is located at the second job site.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to store in the first timer a value indicative of the engine'"'"'s running time at the first job site, and wherein the electronic control unit is configured to store in the second timer a value indicative of the engine'"'"'s running time at the second job site.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to receive a definition of a third job site from a circuit selected from a group comprising a long-range wireless communications circuit, a short-range wireless communications circuit, and a wired computer communications circuit.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the long-range wireless communications circuit is a circuit selected from a group comprising a cellular telephone and a satellite telephone.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the short-range wireless communications circuit is a circuit selected from a group comprising a Bluetooth circuit and an 802.11 circuit.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the electronic control unit is also configured to store a first total engine running time and a second total engine running time, and is configured to shut down the engine when the first timer exceeds the first total engine running time and when the second timer exceeds the second total engine running time.

17. An access control system for a work vehicle including an engine, the work vehicle further having a location, the system comprising:

electronic means for providing a location signal indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s location;

electronic means coupled to the location sensor for receiving the location signal;

electronic means for storing boundaries of a plurality of non-contiguous job sites;

electronic means for permitting the vehicle to operate within the boundaries of at least two of the non-contiguous job sites; and

electronic means for disabling the vehicle when the vehicle leaves the boundaries of the non-contiguous job sites.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for disabling the vehicle includes means for shutting down the engine.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for disabling the vehicle includes means for preventing the vehicle from being driven from one of the plurality of non-contiguous job sites to another of the plurality of non-contiguous job sites.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for storing is configured to store a boundary for each of the plurality of non-contiguous job sites.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for downloading the boundaries of each of the plurality of job sites.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the means for downloading includes a circuit selected from the group comprising a long-range wireless communications circuit, a short-range wireless communications circuit, and a wired computer communications circuit.