Method and system for facilitating vehicle inspection to detect previous damage and repairs
First Claim
1. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect problems with unknown repair, the vehicle having an underbody portion and an outerbody portion, the method comprising:
- (a) receiving vehicle identification information including an indication of vehicle type;
(b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle type, repair specifications and vehicle specifications that include alignment tolerances and;
(c) determining whether damage has occurred to the vehicle by,(c1) receiving a plurality of underbody alignment measurements;
(c2) comparing the received underbody alignment measurements to the retrieved alignment tolerances; and
(c3) indicating a set of alignment nonconformities;
(d) when it is determined that damage has occurred to the vehicle, facilitating the detection and location of previously performed repair work to the vehicle by,(d1) using an inference engine, requesting inspection of certain areas of the outerbody portion based upon the indicated alignment nonconformities;
(d2) for each of the requested certain areas of inspection, receiving an indication of a current condition of the certain area; and
(d3) comparing the received indications of current conditions of the certain areas to the retrieved specifications to identify areas of repair;
(e) when repair areas have been identified,(e1) using an inference engine, requesting inspection of further areas;
(e2) for each of the requested further areas of inspection, receiving an indication of the current condition of the further area; and
(e3) comparing the received indications of current conditions of the further areas to the retrieved repair specifications to identify repair nonconformities and potential safety hazards;
(f) determining a conclusion as to whether the vehicle has been properly repaired; and
(g) outputting the conclusion.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Computer-based methods and systems for facilitating the inspection of a vehicle to detect the presence of prior damage and problems with previous repair are provided. Exemplary embodiments provide an inspection facilitator, which includes an inspection engine and an inspection interface. The inspection engine and inspection interface are implemented as an expert system, which directs a technician or apparatus to perform a uniform inspection process. The inspection facilitator, after receiving vehicle specific information, first directs and guides an inspection of the underbody of the vehicle to detect gross level damage or repair. The inspection facilitator then dynamically directs and guides an inspection of the outerbody of the vehicle based upon the nonconformities indicated in response to each directed inspection task. The areas to be inspected and inspection tasks are determined dynamically by comparing nonconformity input to facts and rules programmed into the inference engine of the inspection facilitator in combination with retrieved manufacturing specifications and industry standard repair procedures.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect problems with unknown repair, the vehicle having an underbody portion and an outerbody portion, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving vehicle identification information including an indication of vehicle type; (b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle type, repair specifications and vehicle specifications that include alignment tolerances and; (c) determining whether damage has occurred to the vehicle by, (c1) receiving a plurality of underbody alignment measurements; (c2) comparing the received underbody alignment measurements to the retrieved alignment tolerances; and (c3) indicating a set of alignment nonconformities; (d) when it is determined that damage has occurred to the vehicle, facilitating the detection and location of previously performed repair work to the vehicle by, (d1) using an inference engine, requesting inspection of certain areas of the outerbody portion based upon the indicated alignment nonconformities; (d2) for each of the requested certain areas of inspection, receiving an indication of a current condition of the certain area; and (d3) comparing the received indications of current conditions of the certain areas to the retrieved specifications to identify areas of repair; (e) when repair areas have been identified, (e1) using an inference engine, requesting inspection of further areas; (e2) for each of the requested further areas of inspection, receiving an indication of the current condition of the further area; and (e3) comparing the received indications of current conditions of the further areas to the retrieved repair specifications to identify repair nonconformities and potential safety hazards; (f) determining a conclusion as to whether the vehicle has been properly repaired; and (g) outputting the conclusion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect damage and problems with previous repair, the vehicle having a plurality of portions, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving vehicle identification information; (b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle identification information, vehicle specifications and repair specifications; (c) determining whether at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle by receiving an indication of the existence of a nonconformity of a first portion of the vehicle to the retrieved vehicle specifications; (d) when it is determined that at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle, (d1) generating and indicating inspection instructions based upon the indicated nonconformities of the first portion of the vehicle; and (d2) receiving, in response to the indicated inspection instructions, an indication of the existence of previously performed repair work to a second portion of the vehicle; (e) when the indication of the existence of previously performed repair work is received, receiving indications of repair nonconformities, the repair nonconformities based upon the retrieved repair specifications; and (f) determining an overall condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of repair nonconformities. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect damage and problems with previous repair, the vehicle having a plurality of portions, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving vehicle identification information; (b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle identification information, vehicle specifications and repair specifications; (c) determining whether at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle by receiving an indication of the existence of a nonconformity of a first portion of the vehicle to the retrieved vehicle specifications; (d) when it is determined that at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle, (d1) indicating inspection instructions based upon the indicated nonconformities of the first portion of the vehicle, wherein the indications of inspection instructions are generated using an inference engine that determines the flow of inspection instructions based upon an indicated nonconformity of a portion of the vehicle; and (d2) receiving, in response to the indicated inspection instructions, an indication of the existence of previously performed repair work to a second portion of the vehicle; (e) when the indication of the existence of previously performed repair work is received, receiving indications of repair nonconformities, the repair nonconformities based upon the retrieved repair specifications; and (f) determining an overall condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of repair nonconformities. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect damage and problems with previous repair, the vehicle having a plurality of portions, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving vehicle identification information; (b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle identification information, vehicle specifications and repair specifications; (c) determining whether at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle by receiving an indication of the existence of a nonconformity of a first portion of the vehicle to the retrieved vehicle specifications; (d) when it is determined that at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle, (d1) indicating inspection instructions based upon the indicated nonconformities of the first portion of the vehicle; and (d2) receiving, in response to the indicated inspection instructions, an indication of the existence of previously performed repair work to a second portion of the vehicle; (e) when the indication of the existence of previously performed repair work is received, receiving indications of repair nonconformities, the repair nonconformities based upon the retrieved repair specifications; and (f) determining an overall condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of repair nonconformities, wherein the overall condition of the vehicle is determined by an inference engine based upon the indicated repair nonconformities.
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25. A method in a computer system for facilitating inspection of a vehicle to detect damage and problems with previous repair, the vehicle having a plurality of portions, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving vehicle identification information; (b) retrieving, based upon the received vehicle identification information, vehicle specifications and repair specifications; (c) determining whether at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle by receiving an indication of the existence of a nonconformity of a first portion of the vehicle to the retrieved vehicle specifications; (d) when it is determined that at least one of damage and repair has occurred to the vehicle, (d1) indicating inspection instructions based upon the indicated nonconformities of the first portion of the vehicle; and (d2) receiving, in response to the indicated inspection instructions, an indication of the existence of previously performed repair work to a second portion of the vehicle; (e) when the indication of the existence of previously performed repair work is received, receiving indications of repair nonconformities, the repair nonconformities based upon the retrieved repair specifications, wherein each indicated repair nonconformity is weighted and the weight of an indicated nonconformity is based upon an amount of deviation from a standardized repair procedure; and (f) determining an overall condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of repair nonconformities.
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26. A method in a computer system for detecting substandard previously performed repair to a vehicle having an underbody portion and an outerbody portion, the method comprising:
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(a) retrieving a set of manufacturer tolerances based upon a received vehicle type; (b) retrospectively determining whether general damage has occurred to the vehicle by requesting inspection of the underbody portion, receiving alignment data, and evaluating the alignment data in view of the retrieved set of manufacturer tolerances; (c) automatically directing inspection of an area of the outerbody portion based upon the evaluated alignment data; (d) receiving an indication of previous repair work; (e) automatically directing inspection of a further plurality of areas of the outerbody portion based upon the received indication of previous repair work, wherein the inspection of the further areas includes examining at least one interaction between vehicle parts that are mechanically unrelated; and (f) producing an indication of the overall condition of the vehicle in accordance with the received indication of previous repair work. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A computer-based vehicle inspection system that retrospectively detects prior repair or damage comprising:
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a data repository of vehicle-related specifications; an inspection engine that, (a) receives indications of nonconformities potentially due to repair or damage; (b) automatically determines an area of inspection likely to reveal nonconformities due to repair or damage, the determination based upon the received indications of nonconformities and the vehicle-related specifications stored in the data repository; (c) generates instructions to inspect the determined area; and (d) when no more areas to inspect are determined, produces an indication of the condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of nonconformities; and an inspection interface that, (a) directs an inspection task according to the instructions generated by the inspection engine to inspect the determined area; and (b) receives indications of nonconformities and forwards the received indications to the engine component. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A computer-based inspection system comprising:
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a data repository of vehicle-related specifications; an inspection engine that, (a) receives indications of nonconformities and assigns weights to the received indicated nonconformities; (b) automatically determines an area of inspection likely to reveal nonconformities based upon the received indications of nonconformities and the vehicle-related specifications stored in the data repository; (c) generates instructions to inspect the determined area; and (d) when no more areas to inspect are determined, produces an indication of the condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of nonconformities, wherein the inspection system uses the assigned weights to determine the condition of the vehicle; and an inspection interface that, (a) directs an inspection task according to the instructions generated by the inspection engine to inspect the determined area; and (b) receives indications of nonconformities and forwards the received indications to the engine component. - View Dependent Claims (45)
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46. A computer-based inspection system comprising:
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a data repository of vehicle-related specifications; an inspection engine that, (a) receives indications of nonconformities; (b) automatically determines an area of inspection likely to reveal nonconformities based upon the received indications of nonconformities and standardized repair procedures stored in the data repository; (c) generates instructions to inspect the determined area; and (d) when no more areas to inspect are determined, produces an indication of the condition of the vehicle based upon the received indications of nonconformities; and an inspection interface that, (a) directs an inspection task according to the instructions generated by the inspection engine to inspect the determined area; and (b) receives indications of nonconformities and forwards the received indications to the engine component.
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47. A method in a computer system for facilitating a retrospective inspection of a vehicle to determine the existence and quality of prior repair or the existence of prior damage comprising:
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receiving indications of nonconformities that are indicative of prior repair or prior damage; using an inference engine, automatically directing the inspection of the vehicle to indicate areas of inspection based upon the received indications of nonconformities; for each indicated nonconformity, encoding an inspection result; and storing the encoded inspection results in a manner that indicates the condition of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A method in a computer system for facilitating a retrospective inspection of a vehicle to assess prior repair or damage comprising:
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receiving an indication of a nonconformity that is potentially indicative of prior repair or damage; retrospectively determining a set of repair steps that should have been performed to the vehicle to avoid the indicated nonconformity; automatically directing an inspection of the vehicle according to the determined set of repair steps to identify whether damage was sustained to the vehicle and whether each repair step, if performed, was properly performed; receiving a plurality of inspection results; and determining from the received inspection results an overall assessment of the vehicle that indicates whether the vehicle sustained damage and whether the vehicle was repaired properly. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56)
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Specification