SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MOBILE CLIENT DEVICES FOR SUPERVISING INDUSTRIAL VEHICLES

• US 20150226560A1
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekar, Kashyap, Waltz, Lucas B., Wong, Lisa
• Granted Patent: US 9,785,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0289 with means for avoiding collisions between vehicles vehicle fittings for automatically controlling speed including means for detecting potential obstacles B60K31/0008; avoiding obstacles by action on the steering system B62D; radar, sonar, lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

The embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for presenting information from a management server on a mobile client device to facilitate the management of industrial vehicles. Embodiments of the system can include a plurality of industrial vehicles communicatively coupled to the management server, and a mobile client device communicatively coupled to the management server. The mobile client device can include a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors. Encoded objects, vehicular objects, or combinations thereof can be presented upon the display of the mobile client device to present information from the management server.

Claims

1. A system comprising a management server, a plurality of industrial vehicles, and a mobile client device separate from the industrial vehicles, wherein:

the management server comprises one or more server processors;

each of the industrial vehicles comprises one or more vehicular processors, and is communicatively coupled to the management server;

the mobile client device comprises a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors, and is communicatively coupled to the management server;

the one or more vehicular processors of each of the industrial vehicles execute vehicle functions to;

(i) determine a localized position with respect to an inventory transit surface of an industrial facility;

(ii) detect an operational characteristic;

(iii) transmit vehicular data indicative of the localized position and the operational characteristic to the management server; and

(iv) navigate along the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility to change a state of the industrial vehicles;

the one or more server processors of the management server execute server functions to;

(i) aggregate the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles into aggregated data; and

(ii) derive an operational descriptor from the aggregated data of the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles;

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives the operational descriptor; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute client functions to;

(i) display a topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the topographical warehouse object comprises a geometric representation indicative of the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility; and

(ii) display an encoded object contemporaneously with the topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the encoded object occupies an area of the topographical warehouse object that corresponds to a region of the inventory transit surface, and wherein the encoded object is indicative of the operational descriptor and the region of the inventory transit surface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the encoded object is indicative of one or more levels of congestion of the region of the inventory transit surface.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute the client functions to show a congestion scale contemporaneously with the encoded object via the display of the mobile client device;

the congestion scale comprises a color gradient having a first end and a second end;

the color gradient of the congestion scale varies from the first end to the second end corresponding to the one or more levels of congestion; and

the encoded object is colored according to a color of the color gradient to quantify an amount of traffic of the region of the inventory transit surface.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the display of the topographical warehouse object and the encoded object is near enough to real-time to permit corrective action to be taken quickly enough to mitigate the negative impact of latency caused by a communication of changing states of the plurality of industrial vehicles to the mobile client device.

4. A mobile client device comprising a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors, wherein:

the mobile client device is communicatively coupled to a management server;

the management server comprises one or more server processors;

the management server is communicatively coupled to a plurality of industrial vehicles;

each of the industrial vehicles comprises one or more vehicular processors and is separate from the mobile client device;

the one or more vehicular processors of each of the industrial vehicles execute vehicle functions to;

(i) determine a localized position with respect to an inventory transit surface of an industrial facility;

(ii) detect an operational characteristic;

(iii) transmit vehicular data indicative of the localized position and the operational characteristic to the management server; and

(iv) navigate the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility to change a state of the industrial vehicles;

the one or more server processors execute server functions to;

(i) aggregate the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles into aggregated data; and

(ii) derive an operational descriptor from the aggregated data of the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles;

the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device receives the operational descriptor; and

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute client functions to;

(i) display a topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the topographical warehouse object comprises a geometric representation indicative of the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility; and

(ii) display an encoded object contemporaneously with the topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the encoded object occupies an area of the topographical warehouse object that corresponds to a region of the inventory transit surface, and wherein the encoded object is indicative of the operational descriptor and the region of the inventory transit surface.

5. The mobile client device of claim 4, wherein the encoded object is indicative of one or more levels of congestion of the region of the inventory transit surface.

6. The mobile client device of claim 5, wherein:

the one or more client processors of the mobile client device execute the client functions to present a congestion scale contemporaneously with the encoded object via the display of the mobile client device;

the congestion scale comprises a color gradient having a first end and a second end;

the color gradient of the congestion scale varies from the first end to the second end corresponding to the one or more levels of congestion; and

the encoded object is colored according to a color of the color gradient to quantify an amount of traffic of the region of the inventory transit surface.

11. The mobile client device of claim 4, wherein the display of the topographical warehouse object and the encoded object is near enough to real-time to permit corrective action to be taken quickly enough to mitigate the negative impact of latency caused by a communication of changing states of the plurality of industrial vehicles to the mobile client device.

7. A method comprising:

disposing each of a plurality of industrial vehicles upon an inventory transit surface of an industrial facility, wherein each of the plurality of industrial vehicles is in communication with a management server and the management server is in communication with a mobile client device, and wherein the mobile client device comprises a display, a wireless communication circuit, and one or more client processors and is separate from the industrial vehicles;

determining a localized position of each of the industrial vehicles with respect to the industrial facility;

detecting an operational characteristic of each of the industrial vehicles;

navigating each of the industrial vehicles upon the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility;

aggregating the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles into aggregated data;

deriving an operational descriptor from the aggregated data of the localized position and the operational characteristic from each of the industrial vehicles;

receiving, automatically with the wireless communication circuit of the mobile client device, the operational descriptor;

displaying, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, a topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the topographical warehouse object comprises a geometric representation indicative of the inventory transit surface of the industrial facility; and

displaying, automatically with the one or more client processors of the mobile client device, an encoded object contemporaneously with the topographical warehouse object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein the encoded object occupies an area of the topographical warehouse object that corresponds to a region of the inventory transit surface, and wherein the encoded object is indicative of the operational descriptor and the region of the inventory transit surface.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the encoded object is indicative of one or more levels of congestion of the region of the inventory transit surface.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

showing a congestion scale contemporaneously with the encoded object via the display of the mobile client device, wherein;

the congestion scale comprises a color gradient having a first end and a second end;

the color gradient of the congestion scale varies from the first end to the second end corresponding to the one or more levels of congestion; and

the encoded object is colored according to a color of the color gradient to quantify an amount of traffic of the region of the inventory transit surface.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the displaying of the topographical warehouse object and the encoded object is near enough to real-time to permit corrective action to be taken quickly enough to mitigate the negative impact of latency caused by a communication of changing states of the plurality of industrial vehicles to the mobile client device.