FLEET TRACKING SYSTEM HAVING UNICAST AND MULTICAST FUNCTIONALITY
First Claim
1. A tracking system for a fleet of machines, comprising:
- a locating device located onboard each machine of the fleet of machine and being configured to determine a current location of an associated machine;
a communicating device located onboard each machine in communication with the locating device; and
a central controller located offboard the fleet of machines in communication with each communicating device and configured to;
receive an unacknowledged message from each communicating device relaying the current location of the associated machine;
update a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location; and
repetitively multicast the location listing to the communicating devices.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A tracking system is disclosed for use with a fleet of machines operating at a common worksite. The tracking system may have a locating device located onboard each machine of the fleet of machine that is configured to determine a current location of an associated machine of the fleet of machines, and a communicating device located onboard each machine in communication with the locating device. The tracking system may also have a central controller located offboard the fleet of machines in communication with each communicating device. The central controller may be configured to receive an unacknowledged message from each communicating device relaying the current location of the associated machine. The central controller may also be configured to update a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location, and to repetitively multicast the location listing to the communicating devices of the fleet of machines.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A tracking system for a fleet of machines, comprising:
-
a locating device located onboard each machine of the fleet of machine and being configured to determine a current location of an associated machine; a communicating device located onboard each machine in communication with the locating device; and a central controller located offboard the fleet of machines in communication with each communicating device and configured to; receive an unacknowledged message from each communicating device relaying the current location of the associated machine; update a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location; and repetitively multicast the location listing to the communicating devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A tracking system for a fleet of machines, comprising:
-
a locating device located onboard each machine of the fleet of machines and being configured to determine a current location of an associated machine of the fleet of machines; a machine controller located onboard each machine; a communicating device located onboard each machine in communication with the locating device and the machine controller; and a central controller located offboard the fleet of machines in communication with each communicating device, the central controller configured to; repetitively receive at a first frequency an unacknowledged message from each communicating device relaying the current location of the associated machine; update a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location; and repetitively multicast at a second frequency greater than the first frequency the location listing to each communicating device, wherein the machine controller is configured to; determine that the unacknowledged message previously sent by the associated communicating device was correctly received by the central controller based on the location listing subsequently multicast by the central controller; and determine that the associated machine is out of contact with the central controller when the unacknowledged message has not been received from the locating device for at least a threshold period of time.
-
-
20. A tracking system for a fleet of machines, comprising:
-
a locating device located onboard each machine of the fleet of machine and being configured to determine a current location of an associated machine; a communicating device located onboard each machine in communication with the locating device; and a central controller located offboard the fleet of machines in communication with each communicating device and configured to; repetitively receive an unacknowledged message from each communicating device relaying the current location of the associated machine; update a plurality of different location listings of the fleet of machines with the current location; and repetitively multicast each of the plurality of different location listings to particular communicating devices based on co-location of the associated machines within particular regions of the worksite.
-
Specification