×

Equipment service vehicle with remote monitoring

  • US 7,184,866 B2
  • Filed: 12/20/2002
  • Issued: 02/27/2007
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
Patent Images

1. An equipment service vehicle comprising:

  • a power source,a power transmission link,a plurality of input devices,a plurality of output devices,an on-board computer system including a plurality of microprocessor-based interface modules and a communication network, the plurality of interface modules being coupled to the power source by way of the power transmission link, the plurality of interface modules being interconnected to each other by way of the communication network, each of the plurality of interface modules being coupled to respective ones of the plurality of input devices and the plurality of output devices by way of respective communication links, and the on-board computer system being configured to store I/O status information for the plurality of input devices and the plurality of output devices;

    wherein the plurality of interface modules are distributed throughout the vehicle, and each respective interface module is locally disposed with respect to the respective input and output devices to which the respective interface module is coupled, so as to permit, by way of the respective communication link, distributed data collection from the respective input devices to the respective interface module and distributed power distribution from the respective interface module to the respective output devices;

    wherein the on-board computer system is configured to transmit at least some of the I/O status information by way of a wireless radio-frequency communication link to an off-board computer system;

    wherein the on-board computer system stores a vehicle maintenance record, the vehicle maintenance record comprising a descriptive log of maintenance activities performed on the vehicle, the on-board computer system being configured to transmit information from the vehicle maintenance record to the off-board computer system; and

    wherein the on-board computer system is configured to receive test commands from an off-board computer system by way of a wireless radio-frequency communication link, the on-board computer system being configured to perform tests on the vehicle in accordance with the test commands received from the off-board computer system, the on-board computer system being configured to transmit results of the tests to the off-board computer system; and

    wherein the vehicle comprises a plurality of vehicle subsystems, and wherein output devices are compared to indicate relative usage of particular vehicle subsystems.

View all claims
  • 2 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×