RESPONSE VEHICLE SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20180289999A1
• Filed: 12/27/2017
• Published: 10/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oshkosh Corporation
• Original Assignee: Oshkosh Corporation
• Inventors: Kay, David R., Linsmeier, Eric R., Dolphin, Chad T.
• Granted Patent: US 10,525,297 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 27/00 Fire-fighting land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 37/50 Testing or indicating devices for determining the state of readiness of the equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/804 containing circuits handling parameters other than liquid level
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/12 in graphical form

Abstract

A fire apparatus includes an engine, a water tank configured to store water, an agent tank configured to store a fire suppressing agent, a fuel tank configured to store a fuel used to power the engine, and a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to monitor the fluid level data indicating at least one of a water level within the water tank, a fire suppressing agent level within the agent tank, and a fuel level within the fuel tank; monitor fault data indicating any active faults of the fire apparatus; monitor maintenance data indicating whether maintenance is due; monitor exercise data indicating an elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised; determine a readiness score based on the fluid level data, fault data, maintenance data, and exercise data; and at least one of transmit the readiness score to (i) a display device and (ii) a remote server.

Claims

1. A fire apparatus, comprising:

an engine;

a water tank configured to store water;

an agent tank configured to store a fire suppressing agent;

a fuel tank configured to store a fuel used to power the engine; and

a processing circuit configured to;

monitor fluid level data indicating at least one of a water level within the water tank, a fire suppressing agent level within the agent tank, and a fuel level within the fuel tank;

monitor fault data indicating any active faults with components of the fire apparatus;

monitor maintenance data indicating whether maintenance is due or overdue;

monitor exercise data indicating an elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised;

determine a readiness score for the fire apparatus based on the fluid level data, the fault data, the maintenance data, and the exercise data; and

at least one of transmit the readiness score to (i) a display device configured to display a readiness graphical user interface including the readiness score to an operator of the fire apparatus and (ii) a remote server.

2. The fire apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to:

identify primary factors, primary reducers, and secondary reducers from the fluid level data, the fault data, the maintenance data, and the exercise data;

determine a primary factor value associated with the primary factors, a primary reducer value associated with the primary reducers, and a secondary reducer value associated with the secondary reducers; and

determine the readiness score by subtracting the primary reducer value and the secondary reducer value from the primary factor value.

3. The fire apparatus of claim 2, wherein the primary factors include (i) the water level within the water tank and (ii) the fire suppressing agent level within the agent tank, wherein the processing circuit is configured to select the lower of a value associated the water level and a value associated with the fire suppressing agent level as the primary factor value.

4. The fire apparatus of claim 2, wherein the primary reducers include (i) the fuel level within the fuel tank and (ii) active serious faults.

5. The fire apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the primary reducer value based on (i) an amount of the fuel tank that is empty and (ii) a predetermined value for each of the active serious faults.

6. The fire apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a diesel exhaust fluid reservoir configured to store a diesel exhaust fluid, wherein the fluid level data further indicates a diesel exhaust fluid level within the diesel exhaust fluid reservoir.

7. The fire apparatus of claim 6, wherein the secondary reducers include (i) the diesel exhaust fluid level within the diesel exhaust fluid reservoir, (ii) active moderate faults, (iii) the maintenance being due or overdue, and (iv) the elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised.

8. The fire apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the secondary reducer value based on (i) a proportion of an amount of the diesel exhaust fluid reservoir that is empty, (ii) a predetermined value for each of the active moderate faults, (iii) a predetermined value for the maintenance being due or overdue, and (iv) a value for the elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised as a function of time.

9. The fire apparatus of claim 2, wherein the readiness graphical user interface includes a readiness factor section that lists a plurality of readiness factors having an associated status or value, wherein the processing circuit is configured to display each readiness factor in one of various colors based on the associated status or value of each readiness factor relative to one or more threshold statuses or values.

10. The fire apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display device includes at least one of a vehicle mounted display and a portable user device.

11. The fire apparatus of claim 1, wherein the remote server is configured to receive the readiness score from a plurality of fire apparatuses of a fleet and provide a comprehensive readiness report for the fleet.

12. The fire apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to classify each active fault as either a serious fault or a moderate fault.

13. A readiness monitoring system for a fire apparatus, comprising:

at least one of a display device and a remote server;

a sensor configured to acquire fluid level data to facilitate monitoring at least one of (i) a water level within a water tank of the fire apparatus, (ii) a fire suppressing agent level within an agent tank of the fire apparatus, (iii) a fuel level within a fuel tank of the fire apparatus, and (iv) a diesel exhaust fluid level within a diesel exhaust fluid reservoir of the fire apparatus; and

a control system configured to;

monitor the fluid level data;

monitor fault data indicating any active faults with components of the fire apparatus;

monitor maintenance data indicating whether maintenance is due or overdue for the fire apparatus;

monitor exercise data indicating an elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised;

determine a readiness score for the fire apparatus based on the fluid level data, the fault data, the maintenance data, and the exercise data; and

transmit the readiness score for the fire apparatus to the at least one of the display device and the remote server;

wherein the at least one of the display device and the remote server is configured to receive and facilitate providing a display of the readiness score for the fire apparatus.

14. The readiness monitoring system of claim 13, wherein the display device is a display configured to be mounted within the fire apparatus.

15. The readiness monitoring system of claim 13, wherein the display device is a portable user device.

16. The readiness monitoring system of claim 13, wherein the remote server is configured to:

receive the readiness score from a plurality of control systems associated with a plurality of fire apparatuses within a fleet; and

provide a comprehensive readiness report for the fleet.

17. A method for evaluating a readiness of a fire apparatus to respond to an incident, comprising:

monitoring, by a processing circuit received from a sensor, fluid level data indicating at least one of (i) a water level within a water tank of a fire apparatus, (ii) a fire suppressing agent level within an agent tank of the fire apparatus, (iii) a fuel level within a fuel tank of the fire apparatus, and (iv) a diesel exhaust fluid level within a diesel exhaust fluid reservoir of the fire apparatus;

monitoring, by the processing circuit, fault data indicating any active faults with components of the fire apparatus;

monitoring, by the processing circuit, maintenance data indicating whether maintenance is due or overdue;

monitoring, by the processing circuit, exercise data indicating an elapsed time since the fire apparatus was last exercised;

determining, by the processing circuit, a readiness score for the fire apparatus based on the fluid level data, the fault data, the maintenance data, and the exercise data; and

transmitting, by the processing circuit, the readiness score to at least one of (i) a display device of the fire apparatus configured to display a readiness graphical user interface including the readiness score to an operator of the fire apparatus and (ii) a remote server to be included in a comprehensive readiness report for a fleet of fire apparatuses.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

identifying, by the processing circuit, primary factors, primary reducers, and secondary reducers from the fluid level data, the fault data, the maintenance data, and the exercise data;

determining, by the processing circuit, a primary factor value associated with the primary factors, a primary reducer value associated with the primary reducers, and a secondary reducer value associated with the secondary reducers; and

determining, by the processing circuit, the readiness score by subtracting the primary reducer value and the secondary reducer value from the primary factor value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the primary factor value includes selecting, by the processing circuit, the lower of a value associated with the water level and a value associated with the fire suppressing agent level as the primary factor value.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the primary reducer value is based on (i) an amount of the fuel tank that is empty and (ii) a predetermined value for any of the active faults that are classified as serious.