Fuel delivery system of machine, fuel delivery method and fuel delivery program of the same

• US 7,353,193 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2002
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Komatsu Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Komatsu Ltd.
• Inventors: Fukushima, Hidetada, Nagai, Takao, Kamada, Yutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; Ryan M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sheikh; Asfand M
• Application Number:
  US10/254,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20030065570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 705/22
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

A fuel delivery system of a machine capable of efficiently feeding fuel, where a time of feeding fuel to a construction machine is estimated based on operation information of the construction machine. Based on position information of the construction machine acquired by position information acquiring means and estimated time of feeding fuel, a delivery schedule, which has a short moving distance and capable of delivering and feeding fuel efficiently in a short period of time, is formed. The delivery schedule is notified to a controller of the construction machine. The delivery schedule is reconstructed by a set input of a change in the delivery schedule from the controller. A specified form for requesting expense of feeding fuel is automatically formed from a fuel feeding amount after fuel has been delivered and fed by the formed delivery schedule and confirming to feed fuel.

Claims

1. A fuel delivery system for forming a delivery schedule for supplying fuel to a machine, the fuel delivery system comprising:

position information acquiring means for acquiring position information of the machine;

operation information acquiring means for acquiring operation information of the machine;

fuel remaining amount information acquiring means for acquiring remaining amount information of the fuel of the machine;

fuel feeding time estimating means for estimating fuel feeding time of the fuel of the machine based on the operation information acquired by the operation information acquiring means and the remaining amount information of the fuel acquired by the fuel remaining amount information acquiring means; and

delivery schedule forming means for forming the delivery schedule for delivering the fuel to the machine based on the fuel feeding time acquired by the fuel feeding time estimating means and the position information acquired by the position information acquiring means to the machine, for permitting a human controller of the machine to accept the delivery schedule, and for permitting a human controller of the machine to modify the delivery schedule.

2. The fuel delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the delivery schedule forming means forms a delivery route based on shortening moving distances and time periods for delivering the fuel.

3. The fuel delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the delivery schedule forming means forms the delivery schedule by acquiring fuel feeding request information from the human controller of the machine.

4. The fuel delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising:

fuel feeding information distributing means for distributing the delivery schedule of the fuel to the human controller of the machine.

5. The fuel delivery system according to claim 4,

wherein the fuel feeding information distributing means distributes delivery information having a content enabling the human controller to input an acknowledgement and to request a change in the delivery schedule of the fuel to the human controller via a wireless medium;

and

wherein the delivery schedule forming means recognizes the content input by the human controller as the fuel feeding request information via a wireless medium.

6. The fuel delivery system according to claim 4, wherein the delivery schedule forming means reconstructs the delivery schedule based on the fuel feeding request information from the human controller recognizing the delivery schedule.

7. The fuel delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising:

fed fuel information acquiring means for acquiring fed fuel information with regard to feeding the fuel from the machine constituting an object to be fed with the fuel; and

fuel feeding information acquiring means for acquiring fuel feeding information with regard to feeding the fuel to the machine;

wherein the delivery schedule forming means recognizes a fuel feeding amount and a fuel price of the fuel by checking the fed fuel information acquired by the fed fuel information acquiring means with the fuel feeding information acquired by the fuel feeding information acquiring means and forms a specified form for requesting an expense produced by feeding the fuel based on the fuel feeding amount and the fuel price of the fuel.

8. A fuel delivery method for forming a delivery schedule for feeding fuel to a machine, the fuel delivery method comprising the steps of:

acquiring position information and operation information of the machine and remaining amount information of the fuel by a computer;

estimating fuel feeding time of the fuel of the machine based on the operation information and the remaining amount information of the fuel by the computer;

forming the delivery schedule for delivering the fuel to the machine based on the fuel feeding time and the position information and displaying the delivery schedule on a screen; and

permitting a human controller of the machine to accept and modify the delivery schedule.

9. The fuel delivery method according to claim 8, wherein the computer forms a delivery route based on shortening moving distances and time periods for delivering the fuel.

10. The fuel delivery method according to claim 8, wherein the computer forms delivery information by acquiring fuel feeding request information from the human controller of the machine.

11. The fuel delivery method according to claim 8, wherein the computer distributes the delivery information of the fuel to the human controller of the machine.

12. The fuel delivery method of a machine according to claim 11,

wherein the computer distributes the delivery information having a content enabling the human controller to input an acknowledgement and to request a change the delivery schedule of the fuel via a wireless medium;

and

wherein the delivery schedule forming means recognizes the content inputted by the human controller as fuel feeding request information via a wireless medium.

13. The fuel delivery method according to claim 10, wherein the computer reconstructs the delivery schedule based on the fuel feeding request information from the human controller recognizing the delivery information.

14. The fuel delivery method according to claim 8,

wherein the computer acquires fed fuel information with regard to feeding the fuel from the machine constituting an object of feeding the fuel and fuel feeding information with regard to feeding the fuel to the machine;

and

wherein the computer recognizes a fuel feeding amount and a fuel price of the fuel by checking the fed fuel information and the fuel feeding information and forms a specified form for requesting an expense produced by feeding the fuel based on the fuel feeding amount and the fuel price of the fuel.

15. A fuel delivery program, wherein the fuel delivery method according to claim 8 is executed by the computer.