System and Method for Tracking and Managing Mobile Resources

• US 20150066557A1
• Filed: 10/28/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tim Lichti
• Original Assignee: Tim Lichti
• Inventors: Lichti, Tim
• Application Number:
  US14/525,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066557A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A system and method for tracking mobile resources that displays tracking data in a graphical display. The system receives tracking data and characteristic tag data about a mobile resource from a tracking device, which is stored in a server or sent directly to a reporting device. The reporting device creates a graphical display indicating, e.g., how long a resource has been at various locations and displays this information on a display device.

Claims

1. A mobile resource management system, comprising:

a server associated with a processor and a memory, and at least one tracking device, the server and the at least one tracking device capable of communicating with one another, and wherein the at least one tracking device is capable of communicating data comprising one or more characteristic tags associated with at least one mobile resource to the server during a monitoring session;

a reporting device to process data received from the at least one tracking device, wherein the reporting device is operable to generate a graphical display from the processed data by using at least one processor to execute computer-executable instructions to;

receive data from at least one of the server and the at least one tracking device,

generate a graphical display, wherein the graphical display includes a visual indicator that identifies the at least one mobile resource, the location of the at least one mobile resource on a map, and at least one characteristic tag associated with the at least one mobile resource, and

communicate the graphical display to a display unit;

a display unit operable to display the graphical display;

a task assignment engine, operable to communicate instructions to the at least one mobile resource via the at least one tracking device;

an alert generation engine, operable to generate alerts when predetermined criteria are satisfied based on the data, and communicate alerts to the at least one mobile resource via the at least one tracking device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator comprises a symbol.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monitoring session data storage unit addressable by the server, wherein the monitoring session data storage unit stores monitoring session data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein alerts are generated when the tracking device is located outside of a predetermined location.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein monitoring session data comprises data from more than one tracking device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator identifies at least two tracking devices.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a billing database comprising one or more billing rates associated with the at least one tracking device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the reporting device further comprises a billing engine in communication with the billing database operable to generate a resource cost from the processed data and one or more billing rates associated with the at least one tracking device.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user input device.

10. The system of claim 3, further comprising a resource allocation engine operable to allocate mobile resources to a location based on the processed data and monitoring session data.

11. A resource management method, comprising the steps of:

tracking at least one mobile resource using a tracking device;

receiving, at a server during a monitoring session, data from the tracking device comprising at least location data and one or more characteristic tags;

generating on a reporting device a graphical display based on the data, wherein the graphical display includes at least one visual indicator that identifies the at least one mobile resource with a first symbol, the location of said mobile resource on a map, and at least one characteristic tag associated with the mobile resource;

identifying when the mobile resource comes within a certain distance of a predetermined location;

displaying the graphical display on a display device.

12. A resource management method, comprising the steps of:

tracking at least one mobile resource using at least one tracking device;

receiving, at a server during a monitoring session, data from the at least one tracking device, wherein the data comprises at least location data and one or more characteristic tags associated with the at least one tracking device;

generating a graphical display based on the data using a reporting device, wherein the graphical display includes visual indicators that identify the at least one mobile resource with a symbol, the location of said mobile resources on a map, and at least one characteristic tag;

identifying time spent by the at least one mobile resource at the location;

creating an overlay to be displayed on the map based on historical data.

13. A resource management method, comprising the steps of:

tracking multiple mobile resources using tracking devices;

receiving, at a server during a monitoring session, data from the tracking devices comprising at least location data and one or more characteristic tags;

generating on a reporting device a graphical display based on the data, wherein the graphical display includes at least visual indicators that identify the mobile resources symbols, the location of the mobile resources on a map, and at least one characteristic tag associated with each mobile resource, and displaying the graphical display on a display device;

identifying an event location requiring at least one mobile resource with at least one necessary characteristic tag;

identifying, based on the data, the mobile resource having the at least one characteristic tag matching the necessary characteristic tag located closest to the event location;

sending instructions to the mobile resource having the at least one characteristic tag matching the necessary characteristic tag comprising the event location.

14. A resource management method, comprising the steps of:

tracking at least one mobile resource using at least one tracking device;

receiving, at a server during a monitoring session, data from the at least one tracking device, wherein the data comprises at least location data and one or more characteristic tags associated with the at least one tracking device;

generating a graphical display based on the data using a reporting device, wherein the graphical display includes visual indicators that identify the at least one mobile resource with a symbol, the location of the mobile resources on a map, and at least one characteristic tag associated with the mobile resource;

identifying the amount of time spent by the at least one mobile resource at the location;

comparing the amount of time spent by the at least one mobile resource at the location to a predetermined amount of time.