Device and method for coordinating a machine fleet
First Claim
1. A device for coordinating a machine fleet, comprisinga memory for storing a large number of data records;
- an interface for communicating with several users;
an administration unit for making changes to the data records in reaction to users'"'"' requests;
wherein said memory is configured so that each data record represents a given portion of a working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet and includes an urgency threshold assigned to said data record by said administrative unit; and
wherein said administration unit is configured so that the changes relate to an assignment of a portion of the working capacity represented by the data records to users making the change request and to implement a change to a data record when so requested by a user if the data record is not assigned to any other user, and when an urgency of the change indicated by the user which provides the change request reaches a threshold urgency specified for the given portion of working capacity represented by the data record; and
wherein the urgency and the urgency threshold are quantified monetarily to reflect a decreasing difference in time between a time at which the user makes the change request and a time associated with the requested data record change.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A device for coordinating a machine fleet includes a memory for storing a large number of data records, an interface for communicating with several users who are capable of making changes to the data records, in the case of which each data record represents a given portion of the working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet, and the changes relate to the assignment of the portion of the working capacity represented by the data record to the users making the change, and an administration unit designed to allow a change to be made to a data record by a user requesting the change if the data record is not assigned to any other user and an urgency of the change indicated by the requesting user reaches a threshold specified for the particular portion.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A device for coordinating a machine fleet, comprising
a memory for storing a large number of data records; -
an interface for communicating with several users; an administration unit for making changes to the data records in reaction to users'"'"' requests; wherein said memory is configured so that each data record represents a given portion of a working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet and includes an urgency threshold assigned to said data record by said administrative unit; and wherein said administration unit is configured so that the changes relate to an assignment of a portion of the working capacity represented by the data records to users making the change request and to implement a change to a data record when so requested by a user if the data record is not assigned to any other user, and when an urgency of the change indicated by the user which provides the change request reaches a threshold urgency specified for the given portion of working capacity represented by the data record; and wherein the urgency and the urgency threshold are quantified monetarily to reflect a decreasing difference in time between a time at which the user makes the change request and a time associated with the requested data record change. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10)
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8. A device for coordinating a fleet of mobile agricultural machines, comprising
a memory for storing a large number of data records; -
an interface for communicating with several users; and an administration unit for changing the data records in reaction to requests from the users; wherein said memory is configured so that each data record represents a given portion of a working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet and so that an urgency threshold is assigned to each data record by said administration unit, wherein said administration unit is configured so that the changes relate to an assignment of a portion of a working capacity represented by the data record to the users making the change, and so that said administration unit cancels, upon a request of a user, an assignment of a data record to the user, and assigns a new data record to said user if an urgency threshold for the new data record is lower than the urgency threshold for the originally assigned data record; and wherein the urgency thresholds of the original data record and the new data record are quantified monetarily to reflect a decreasing difference in time between a time at which the user makes the change request and a time associated with the new data record.
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11. A method, operating on a digital computer comprising an administration unit and a memory, for coordinating a machine fleet, comprising steps of
providing a large number of data records in the memory, wherein each data record represents a given portion of a working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet and includes a specified urgency threshold; -
receiving a request from a user to change a data record with the change related to an assignment of the given portion of the working capacity represented by the data record to the user requesting the change; and the administration unit implementing the requested change if the data record is not assigned to any other user and an urgency of the requested change indicated by the user providing the request reaches the urgency threshold specified for the given portion; wherein the urgency and the urgency threshold are quantified monetarily to reflect a decreasing difference in time between a time at which the user makes the change request and a time associated with the requested data record. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20)
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18. A method, operating on a digital computer comprising an administration unit and a memory, for coordinating a fleet of mobile agricultural machines, comprising steps of
providing a large number of data records in a memory with each data record representing a given portion of a working capacity of a machine in the machine fleet and including a specified urgency threshold; -
receiving a request from a user to change from an originally assigned data record to a new data record; and the administration unit canceling an assignment of the originally assigned data record to the requesting user;
assigning a new data record to the requesting user; and
implementing the requested change if the new data record is not assigned to any other users and if a specified urgency threshold for the new data record is lower than the specified urgency threshold for the originally assigned data record; andwherein the specified urgency threshold of originally assigned data record and the new data record are quantified monetarily to reflect a decreasing difference in time between a time at which the user makes the change request and a time associated with the requested new data record.
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Specification