SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IN-VEHICLE OPERATOR TRAINING

• US 20120221216A1
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tenstreet, LLC
• Original Assignee: Vnomics Corp. (Tenstreet, LLC)
• Inventors: McCarthy, Edward, CHAUNCEY, DAVID C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,037,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/51
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/10 Weight
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/10 Accelerator pedal position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/16 Ratio selector position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2756/10 Involving external transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/14 Traffic procedures, e.g. traffic regulations
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

An on-vehicle system for assessing an operator'"'"'s efficiency of a vehicle, include sensors, an audiovisual display device, a processor and a data storage. The sensors measure or detect conditions of components of the vehicle, and convert the detected conditions into analog or digital information. The data storage stores program instructions, the analog or digital information from the sensors, and other data. The program instructions, when executed by the processor, control the on-vehicle system to determine a state of the vehicle within a vehicle'"'"'s environment based on the analog or digital information from the sensors, determine whether one or more of a predetermined set of behaviors has occurred based on the determined state of a vehicle, assess performance of the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors, and present the operator, via the audiovisual display device, a feedback based on the assessment.

Claims

1. An on-vehicle system for assessing an operator'"'"'s efficiency of a vehicle, the system comprising:

a plurality of sensors configured to measure or detect conditions of components of the vehicle, and convert the detected conditions into analog or digital information;

an audiovisual display device;

a processor; and

a data storage storing program instructions, the analog or digital information from the sensors, and other data;

wherein the program instructions, when executed by the processor, control the on-vehicle system to determine a state of the vehicle within a vehicle'"'"'s environment based on the analog or digital information from the sensors, determine whether one or more of a predetermined set of behaviors has occurred based on the determined state of a vehicle, assess performance of the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors, and present the operator, via the audiovisual display device, a feedback based on the assessment.

2. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein, the program instructions, when executed by the processor, control the on-vehicle system to compare the assessed performance to historical performance information of the operator, modify an operator feedback threshold based on the result of the comparison, and present the operator the feedback at least partly based on the adjusted feedback threshold.

3. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined set of behaviors includes running auxiliary equipmentle, excessive idle, progressive shifting, speeding, hard-braking, hard-acceleration and unsafe maneuver.

4. The on-vehicle system according to claim 2, wherein the operator feedback threshold is incrementally changed based on a desired performance threshold.

5. The on-vehicle system according to claim 4, wherein the incremental change is determined dynamically or based on a predetermined regimen.

6. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the feedback is provided to the operator based on a situation at the current instant of time.

7. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the assessment is performed substantially in real-time.

8. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the program instructions include a recording module, a behavior module, a coaching module and a reporting module.

9. The on-vehicle system according to claim 8, wherein the recording module configures the controller to obtain and store information provided by the sensors.

10. The on-vehicle system according to claim 9, wherein the behavior module configures the controller to receive information provided by the recording module and determine whether one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors has occurred.

11. The on-vehicle system according to claim 10, wherein the coaching module configures the controller to assess the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors, adjust cueing thresholds and generate the feedback to the operator using the audiovisual device.

12. The on-vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the adjusting of the cueing thresholds is performed substantially in real-time.

13. The on-vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the reporting module configures the controller to dynamically generate documents based on information from the recording module, the behavior module and the coaching module.

14. The on-vehicle system according to claim 13, wherein the documents generated by the reporting module are stored in the data storage.

15. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the assessment of the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors is normalized based on at least one of a load, a route, a terrain profile and a vehicle specification.

16. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, further comprising a communication device, wherein the communication device transmits information related to the operator based on the assessment to at least a remote location.

17. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein operator cueing is included in the feedback provided to the operator.

18. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, further comprising a communication device, wherein an alert is sent to a remote location by the communication device when the operator repeatedly fails to comply with the operator cueing.

19. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the sensors include at least one of control input sensors, vehicle position sensors, vehicle motion sensors, drive train sensors, load sensors and environment sensors.

20. The on-vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein the components of the vehicle include control input devices that receive control inputs from the operator, and the control input sensors detect or measure changes in the state of the control input devices.

21. The on-vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein at least one of the vehicle position sensors and the vehicle motion sensors detects or measures at least one of a position, an orientation, a velocity, an acceleration and changes in the state of the vehicle.

22. The on-vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein the drive train sensors include devices that determine operating parameters of an engine and a transmission of the vehicle.

23. The on-vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein the load sensors determine or receive information of at least one of a weight and a position of a current load of the vehicle.

24. The on-vehicle system according to claim 23, wherein the information received by the load sensors include at least one of a tire pressure and a temperature in which the vehicle is operating.

25. The on-vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein the environment sensors detect or receive information of environmental conditions in which the vehicle is operating.

26. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the environmental conditions include at least one of a temperature, a humidity, a barometric pressure, a precipitation, a terrain profile, a wind speed and a wind direction.

27. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the audiovisual display device includes a video display, an audio transducer, and an operator-input device.

28. The on-vehicle system according to claim 13, wherein the audiovisual display device displays information based on the documents generated by the reporting module.

29. The on-vehicle system according to claim 16, wherein the communication device uses at least one of wired, fixed wireless, or mobile wireless information networks to communicate with the remote location.

30. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the data storage stores vehicle information, operator information and sortie information.

31. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the data storage stores behavior information including parameters that determine whether the operator has performed the one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors.

32. The on-vehicle system according to claim 8, wherein the data storage stores coaching information for reference by the coaching module, wherein the coaching information include thresholds, datasets, multidimensional databases, and algorithms defining desired operator behaviors.

33. The on-vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the data storage stores a sensor log recording information provided by the sensors in association with a corresponding time frame, and a coaching log recording operator'"'"'s behaviors that occurred during a sortie.

34. The on-vehicle system according to claim 10, wherein the data storage stores a coaching log recording the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors by the behavior module.

35. The on-vehicle system according to claim 8, wherein the coaching module configures the controller to retrieve information from a sensor log and a coaching log stored in the data storage, and dynamically determine positive events and negative events, and generate the feedback to the operator at least partly based on the determined positive events and negative events,

wherein the sensor log records information provided by the sensors in association with a corresponding time frame, and

wherein the coaching log records the determined one or more of the predetermined set of behaviors by the behavior module.

36. A method for providing adaptive operator assessment and coaching for an operator of a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a state of the vehicle based on information from sensors in a time frame;

determining desired operator behaviors for the time frame based on vehicle information, sortie information and the information from sensors;

determining whether one or more of predetermined behavior categories has occurred or is occurring;

assessing an operator'"'"'s performance based on the state of the vehicle in the time frame, and

providing a feedback to the operator of the vehicle based on the determined one or more of predetermined behavior categories and the assessment.

37. The method according to claim 36, wherein the determination of the operator behaviors is real-time.

38. The method according to claim 36, wherein the determination whether one or more of predetermined behavior categories has occurred or is occurring is real-time.

39. The method according to claim 36, wherein the predetermined behavior categories include at least of one of high-idle, excessive idle, progressive shifting, speeding, hard-braking, hard-acceleration and unsafe maneuver.

40. The method according to claim 36, further comprising comparing the operator'"'"'s performance with historical operator'"'"'s performance.

41. The method according to claim 36, wherein the feedback provided to the operator includes operator cueing.

42. The method according to claim 41, wherein if it is determined that the operator cueing is ignored by the operator, an alert is generated and sent to a remote location.

43. The method according to claim 40, further comprising:

modifying an operator feedback threshold based on the result of the comparison; and

providing the feedback to the operator at least partly based on the modified feedback threshold.

44. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause a system to perform steps of

determining a state of a vehicle based on information from sensors in a time frame;

determining desired operator behaviors for the time frame based on vehicle information, sortie information and the information from sensors;

determining whether one or more of predetermined behavior categories has occurred or is occurring;

assessing an operator'"'"'s performance based on the state of the vehicle in the time frame, and

providing a feedback to the operator of the vehicle based on the determined one or more of predetermined behavior categories and the assessment.

45. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, wherein the determination of the operator behaviors is real-time.

46. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, wherein the determination whether one or more of predetermined behavior categories has occurred or is occurring is real-time.

47. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, wherein the predetermined behavior categories include at least of one of high-idle, excessive idle, progressive shifting, speeding, hard-braking, hard-acceleration and unsafe maneuver.

48. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, further comprising comparing the operator'"'"'s performance with historical operator'"'"'s performance.

49. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, wherein the feedback provided to the operator includes operator cueing.

50. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 44, wherein if it is determined that the operator cueing is ignored by the operator, an alert is generated and sent to a remote location.

51. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 48, wherein the steps further comprise:

modifying an operator feedback threshold based on the result of the comparison, and

and providing the feedback to the operator at least partly based on the modified feedback threshold.