REMOTELY MONITORING FIELD ASSETS

• US 20100176933A1
• Filed: 01/14/2009
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Original Assignee: EON Corporation
• Inventors: Barragan Trevino, Alfonso Javier, Rose, Herbert
• Granted Patent: US 8,269,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.320
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Disclosed methods, systems, and apparatuses remotely monitor a plurality of field assets. Device discovery is conducted to find a communication path through a master controller to an operations center. A plurality of states are monitored for individual field assets of the plurality of field assets. In response to trigger events, monitored states are selectively included in data sets that may be parsed, compressed, encrypted, and forwarded through a mesh network to an operations center.

Claims

1. A method of remotely monitoring a plurality of field assets, the method comprising:

conducting device discovery to find a communication path through a master controller to an operations center;

monitoring a plurality of states for individual field assets of the plurality of field assets;

encoding a portion of the plurality of monitored states; and

responsive to a trigger event, transmitting through the communication path the encoded portion of the plurality of monitored states.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication path is through at least one client controller, wherein the at least one client controller is in direct communication with at least one of the plurality of field assets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said encoding includes compressing the portion of the plurality of monitored states.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is from the master controller.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication path includes a plurality of field assets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the master controller communicates through a transceiver using one or more mobile telephone protocols.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the master controller is associated with a subscriber identity module.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the trigger event is a request from a central data server and is sent through the master controller.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is an alarm state.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a scheduled report interval.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states include product inventory data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of states include currency inventory data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of states include alarm data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of states includes temperature data.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the trigger event is a request to receive information, wherein the request is from a central data server.

16. A field asset tracking system comprising:

a product detection system for contributing product inventory information to a data set;

a currency tracking system for contributing currency inventory information to the data set;

a transaction report system for contributing transaction information to the data set;

an operation condition system for contributing operating condition information to the data set;

a controller communicatively coupled to the product detection system, the currency tracking system, the transaction report system, and the operation condition system;

a transmitter adapted for transmitting a portion of the data set in response to at least one trigger event, wherein the transmitter is communicatively coupled to;

the controller;

at least one operations center;

a field asset that is local to the transmitter; and

at least one further field asset that is remote from the transmitter.

17. The field asset system of claim 16, further comprising:

an encoder adapted to compress the portion of the data set.

18. The field asset system of claim 17, wherein the encoder is further enabled to encrypt the portion of the data set.

19. The field asset system of claim 16, further comprising:

a report generator for extracting data from the data set individually for each field asset.

20. The field asset system of claim 16, wherein the data set includes a DEX industry standard format.

21. The field asset system of claim 16, wherein the transmitter is further communicatively coupled to:

a further transmitter that is communicatively coupled to a cluster of further field assets, wherein the further transmitter sends to the transmitter a further data set with status data for a portion of the cluster of further field assets.

22. The field asset system of claim 16, wherein the controller is enabled for discovering an optimized path through a plurality of field asset transmitters to a master controller.

23. The field asset system of claim 22, wherein the controller is enabled to become the master controller if the transmitter communicatively coupled to the controller is determined to have a favorable communication link to an operations center.

24. The field asset system of claim 23, wherein the transmitter is enabled to periodically send a presence signal to the operations center.

25. The field asset system of claim 22, wherein the transmitter is enabled to communicate using one or more mobile telephone protocols.

26. The field asset system of claim 25, wherein the transmitter is associated with a subscriber identity module card.

27. The field asset system of claim 25, wherein the field asset that is local to the transmitter and the at least one further field asset that is remote from the transmitter are enabled to communicate using IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards.

28. The field asset system of claim 25, wherein the transmitter is enabled to time its transmissions to avoid collisions with transmissions from other transmitters.

29. An apparatus for processing field asset data, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for generating a local data set responsive to a trigger event, wherein the local data set includes one or more of;

currency inventory information, product inventory information, transaction information, and operating condition information;

a receiver enabled for receiving a remote data set from one or more remote field assets;

a compression system for integrating the remote data set and the local data set into a data block; and

a transmitter for transmitting the data block to a master controller for further routing.