CARGO MONITORING AND TRACKING SYSTEM

• US 20150339902A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Wide-Roots Telecomunicaciones S.L.
• Original Assignee: Wide-Roots Telecomunicaciones S.L.
• Inventors: DOMNGUEZ LATORRE, Francisco Javier
• Application Number:
  US14/761,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339902A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2462 Asset location systems combined with EAS inventory, tracking, logistic G06Q10/00; entrance control systems G07C9/00

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cargo monitoring and tracking system. The system comprises at least one cargo location device, configured to be disposed at, especially hidden in a cargo item or a group of cargo items, at least one cargo supervising device configured to be disposed at a transport means for the cargo items and cargo control means. The at least one cargo location device is configured to be operated in a monitoring mode in which it transmits a monitoring radio signal adapted to be received by the at least one cargo supervising device and a tracking mode in which it transmits a tracking radio signal which is traceable by tracking means. Furthermore the cargo location device is configured to automatically switch between the monitoring mode and the tracking mode.

Claims

1. Cargo monitoring and tracking system, comprising:

at least one cargo location device (1), configured to be disposed at, especially hidden in a cargo item or a group of cargo items, the cargo location device (1) comprising means (13, 14, 15) for transmitting and receiving radio signals, a central processing unit (16) and at least one energy source (17, 18),

at least one cargo supervising device (2), configured to be disposed at a transport means (5) for the cargo items, comprising means (27) for transmitting radio signals to and receiving radio signals from the at least one cargo location device (1), means (22) to send and receive information via a wide area network and at least one energy source (26), and

cargo control means (6), comprising means for wirelessly sending data to and receiving data from the at least one cargo supervising device (2) via a wide area network and a database, the cargo control means (6) being configured to store data, especially data that has been sent to or received from the at least one cargo supervising device (2), in the data base,

wherein the at least one cargo location device (1) is configured to be operated in a monitoring mode in which it transmits a monitoring radio signal adapted to be received by the at least one cargo supervising device (2) and a tracking mode in which it transmits a tracking radio signal which is traceable by tracking means (7) and wherein the cargo location device (1) is configured to automatically switch between the monitoring mode and the tracking mode.

2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo location device (1) comprises means for determining its relative spatial distance to the cargo supervising device and is configured to switch from monitoring mode to tracking mode when a given value of spatial distance is exceeded and/or when a current value of spatial distance is changed and/or when a radio signal transmission from the at least one cargo supervising device (2) to the at least one cargo location device (1) ends.

3. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one wireless alarm device (3), which is configured to be joined to the transport means (5) for the cargo items is provided, the at least one wireless alarm device (3) comprising means for transmitting radio signals to and receiving radio signals from the at least one cargo supervising device (2), at least one energy source and an alarm mechanism which can be manually activated by a user, wherein especially the at least one cargo location device (1) is configured to switch from monitoring mode to tracking mode when the alarm mechanism of the wireless alarm device (3) is manually activated by a user.

4. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the means for transmitting and receiving radio signals of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprise a radio chip (13), which is configured to generate modulated radio signals and to demodulate radio signals and/or at least one antenna (15) and/or a power amplifier (14) and/or the energy source of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprises a primary battery (17), a transmit battery (18) and a battery power management system (19).

5. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo location device (1) is configured to intermittently send check radio signals to the at least one cargo supervising device (2) in monitoring mode and the at least one cargo supervising device (2) is configured to intermittently send acknowledge radio signals to the at least one cargo location device (1) in response to the check radio signals.

6. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo location device (1) comprises a GSM radio modem configured to be registered to a cellular network.

7. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo supervising device (2) comprises means for determining its spatial distance to the at least one cargo location device (1) and is configured to switch to an alert mode when a given value of spatial distance is exceeded and/or when a current value of spatial distance is changed.

8. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo supervising device (2) is configured to communicate with a number of cargo location devices (1) which are assigned to the at least one cargo supervising device (2).

9. System according to claim 5, characterized in that the at least one cargo supervising device (2) is configured to allocate specific time slots for the transmission of the check radio signals to each of the number of cargo location devices (1), the time slots for different cargo location devices (1) especially not being in overlap with each other.

10. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo supervising device (2) comprises at least one GPS receiver (21) and/or at least one GSM module (22) and/or at least one Bluetooth module (24) and/or at least one antenna (23) and/or at least one serial hub controller (25).

11. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one cargo supervising device (2) comprises a RF cargo location device supervisor unit (27) with a radio chip, a radio power amplifier and a central processing unit.

12. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the cargo control means (6) comprise a cargo control center (9), configured to control the at least one cargo supervising device (2) and/or a cargo management server (8), configured to keep data bases with information about the at least one cargo supervising device (2) and the at least one cargo location device (1), about date, time and position and/or the cargo control means (6) are configured to send information to and receive information from a customer via a software based, especially web based, customer information system (10).

13. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one display means (4) for displaying data to a user is provided, which is configured to be disposed at a transport means (5), the at least one display means (4) comprising means for transmitting radio signals to and receiving radio signals from the at least one cargo supervising device (2).

14. System according to claim 1, characterized in that tracking means (7), especially stationary (11) and/or mobile (12) tracking devices, are provided, which are configured to trace a tracking radio signal transmitted by the at least one cargo location device (1) in tracking mode, wherein especially the tracking means (7) comprise a radio frequency direction finding unit, which is configured to determine the bearing angle of the tracking signal transmitted from the at least one cargo location device (1) in tracking mode, especially by application of a Doppler shift based radio frequency direction finding technology.

16. System according to claim 2, characterized in that at least one wireless alarm device (3), which is configured to be joined to the transport means (5) for the cargo items is provided, the at least one wireless alarm device (3) comprising means for transmitting radio signals to and receiving radio signals from the at least one cargo supervising device (2), at least one energy source and an alarm mechanism which can be manually activated by a user, wherein especially the at least one cargo location device (1) is configured to switch from monitoring mode to tracking mode when the alarm mechanism of the wireless alarm device (3) is manually activated by a user.

17. System according to claim 2, characterized in that the means for transmitting and receiving radio signals of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprise a radio chip (13), which is configured to generate modulated radio signals and to demodulate radio signals and/or at least one antenna (15) and/or a power amplifier (14) and/or the energy source of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprises a primary battery (17), a transmit battery (18) and a battery power management system (19).

18. System according to claim 3, characterized in that the means for transmitting and receiving radio signals of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprise a radio chip (13), which is configured to generate modulated radio signals and to demodulate radio signals and/or at least one antenna (15) and/or a power amplifier (14) and/or the energy source of the at least one cargo location device (1) comprises a primary battery (17), a transmit battery (18) and a battery power management system (19).

15. Cargo location device (1), configured to be disposed at, especially hidden in a cargo item or a group of cargo items, the cargo location device (1) comprising means (13, 14, 15) for transmitting and receiving radio signals, a central processing unit (16) and at least one energy source (17, 18), and being configured to be operated in a monitoring mode in which it transmits a monitoring radio signal, which is receivable by monitoring means (2) and a tracking mode in which it transmits a tracking radio signal which is traceable by tracking means (7) and wherein the cargo location device (1) is configured to automatically switch between the monitoring mode and the tracking mode.