Remotely monitoring field assets

• US 8,269,604 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2009
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Original Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Inventors: Barragan Trevino, Alfonso Javier, Rose, Herbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alizada, Omeed
• Application Number:
  US12/353,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20100176933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,343 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 235/385, 705/22, 705 28- 29, 700215-229
• US Class Current: 340/5.92
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Disclosed methods, systems, and apparatuses remotely monitor a plurality of field assets. Device discovery is conducted to find a communication path through a master controller to an operations center. A plurality of states are monitored for individual field assets of the plurality of field assets. In response to trigger events, monitored states are selectively included in data sets that may be parsed, compressed, encrypted, and forwarded through a mesh network to an operations center.

Claims

1. A method of remotely monitoring a plurality of field assets, the method comprising:

conducting device discovery to find a communication path through a master controller, included among two or more potential master controllers, to an operations center and, during device discovery, assigning master controller duties to the master controller;

communicating, through the master controller to the field assets, a trigger event sent from a central data server;

monitoring a plurality of states for individual field assets of the field assets;

encoding and compressing only a portion of the plurality of monitored states; and

responsive to the trigger event, transmitting through the communication path the encoded and compressed portion of the plurality of monitored states.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication path is through the master controller that is in direct communication with at least one of the field assets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is from the master controller.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication path includes the field assets.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the master controller communicates through a transceiver using one or more mobile telephone protocols.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the master controller is associated with a subscriber identity module.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is an alarm state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a scheduled report interval.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states include product inventory data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of states include currency inventory data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of states include alarm data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of states includes temperature data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the trigger event is a request to receive information, wherein the request is from the central data server.

14. A field asset tracking system comprising:

a product detection system to contribute product inventory information to a data set;

a currency tracking system to contribute currency inventory information to the data set;

a transaction report system to contribute transaction information to the data set;

an operation condition system to contribute operating condition information to the data set;

a controller to communicatively couple to the product detection system, the currency tracking system, the transaction report system, and the operation condition system;

a transmitter adapted to transmit a compressed portion of the data set in response to at least one trigger event arising from an operations center, wherein the transmitter is to communicatively couple to;

the controller;

the operations center;

a field asset that is local to the transmitter; and

at least one further field asset that is remote from the transmitter;

wherein the controller is enabled to discover an optimized path through a plurality of field asset transmitters to a master controller included among two or more potential master controllers.

15. The field asset system of claim 14, further comprising:

an encoder adapted to compress the portion of the data set.

16. The field asset system of claim 15, wherein the encoder is further enabled to encrypt the portion of the data set.

17. The field asset system of claim 14, further comprising:

a report generator to extract data from the data set individually for each field asset.

18. The field asset system of claim 14, wherein the data set includes a DEX industry standard format.

19. The field asset system of claim 14, wherein the transmitter is to further communicatively couple to:

a further transmitter that is to communicatively couple to a cluster of further field assets, wherein the further transmitter is to send to the transmitter a further data set with status data for a portion of the cluster of further field assets.

20. The field asset system of claim 14, wherein the controller is enabled to become the master controller if the transmitter communicatively coupled to the controller is determined to have a favorable communication link to an operations center.

21. The field asset system of claim 14, wherein the transmitter is enabled to communicate using one or more mobile telephone protocols.

22. The field asset system of claim 21, wherein the transmitter is associated with a subscriber identity module card.

23. The field asset system of claim 21, wherein the field asset that is local to the transmitter and the at least one further field asset that is remote from the transmitter are enabled to communicate using IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards.

24. The field asset system of claim 21, wherein the transmitter is enabled to time its transmissions to avoid collisions with transmissions from other transmitters.

25. An apparatus for processing field asset data, the apparatus comprising:

a processor to generate a local data set responsive to a trigger event sent from an operations center, wherein the local data set includes one or more of;

currency inventory information, product inventory information, transaction information, and operating condition information;

a receiver enabled to receive a remote data set from one or more remote field assets;

a compression system to integrate and compress only a portion of the remote data set and the local data set into a data block; and

a transmitter to transmit the data block to a master controller, included among two or more potential master controllers, for further routing to the operations center.