Fleet tracking method using unicast and multicast communication

• US 8,660,791 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Inventors: Koehrsen, Craig L., Collins, Darryl V., Everett, Bryan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US13/173,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20130002455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 971 Days
• Field of Search: 701/482, 701/36, 701/462, 701/29.3
• US Class Current: 701/468
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A method of tracking a fleet of machines operating at a common worksite is disclosed. The method may include receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines, the unacknowledged message including a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines. The method may also include updating a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location, and repetitively multicasting the location listing to the communicating devices.

Claims

1. A method of tracking a fleet of machines, comprising:

repetitively receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines that includes a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

updating a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location; and

repetitively multicasting the location listing to the communicating devices at a first frequency greater than a second frequency at which the unacknowledged message is repetitively received, wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at a frequency that increases with a decreasing distance of the associated machine to another machine of the fleet of machines.

2. The method of claim 1, further including determining that a particular machine of the fleet of machines is out of contact when the unacknowledged message has not been received for at least a threshold period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes:

repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at the second frequency when an associated machine of the fleet of machines is traveling at a speed less than a threshold speed; and

repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at a frequency that increases with an increasing travel speed of the associated machine that is faster than the threshold speed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location listing further includes locations of stationary infrastructure at a common worksite.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein repetitively multicasting the location listing to the communicating devices includes repetitively multicasting the location listing to the communicating devices associated with only machines of the fleet of machines located within a particular region of a worksite.

6. A method of tracking a fleet of machines, comprising:

repetitively receiving at a central controller and at a first frequency an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines that includes a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

updating a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location; and

repetitively multicasting at a second frequency less than the first frequency the location listing to the communicating devices,

wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes;

repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at the second frequency when an associated machine of the fleet of machines is traveling at a speed less than a threshold speed;

repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at a frequency that increases with at least one of an increasing travel speed of the associated machine that is faster than the threshold speed and a decreasing distance of the associated machine to another machine of the fleet of machines.

7. A method of tracking a fleet of machines, comprising:

repetitively receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines from different regions of a worksite, each of the messages including a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

updating a plurality of different location listings of the fleet of machines with the current location; and

repetitively multicasting the plurality of different location listings to particular communicating devices based on co-location of the associated machines within particular regions of the worksite,

wherein repetitively multicasting the location listing includes repetitively multicasting the location listing at a first frequency greater than a second frequency at which the unacknowledged message is repetitively received,

and wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at the second frequency when an associated machine of the fleet of machines is traveling at a speed less than a threshold speed, the second frequency increasing with an increasing travel speed of the associated machine that is faster than the threshold speed.

8. The method of claim 7, further including determining that a particular machine of the fleet of machines is out of contact when the unacknowledged message has not been received for at least a threshold period of time.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at a frequency that increases with a decreasing distance of the associated machine to another machine of the fleet of machines.

10. A method of tracking a fleet of machines, comprising:

repetitively receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines from different regions of a worksite, each of the messages including a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

updating a plurality of different location listings of the fleet of machines with the current location; and

repetitively multicasting the plurality of different location listings to particular communicating devices based on co-location of the associated machines within particular regions of the worksite,

wherein repetitively multicasting the location listing includes repetitively multicasting the location listing at a first frequency greater than a second frequency at which the unacknowledged message is repetitively received, and

wherein repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message includes repetitively receiving the unacknowledged message at a frequency that increases with a decreasing distance of the associated machine to another machine of the fleet of machines.

11. A method of tracking a fleet of machines, comprising:

receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines that includes a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

receiving at a central controller an unacknowledged message from communicating devices onboard the fleet of machines that includes a current location of each of the fleet of machines determined by locating devices onboard the fleet of machines;

updating a location listing of the fleet of machines with the current location;

repetitively multicasting the location listing to the communicating devices; and

determining a long-term communication status for each machine based on comparison of an actual frequency of receiving the unacknowledged message for each machine and an expected frequency, wherein repetitively multicasting the location listing further includes repetitively multicasting the long-term communication status for each machine of the fleet of machines.

12. The method of claim 11, further including determining that the unacknowledged message was correctly received based on the location listing subsequently multicast to the fleet of machines, wherein an onboard controller associated with one machine of the fleet of machines confirms the location listing subsequently multicast based on a previously communicated unacknowledged message from the one machine.

13. The method of claim 12, further including causing one of the communicating devices, the communicating device being associated with the one machine of the fleet of machines to immediately send another unacknowledged message relaying the current location of the one machine of the fleet of machines when it is determined that the unacknowledged message was not correctly received.

14. The method of claim 13, further including:

determining that a particular machine of the fleet of machines is out of contact when the unacknowledged message has not been received for at least at threshold period of time; and

responsively causing the communicating device to immediately send another unacknowledged message relaying the current location.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein:

determining the long-term communication status for a particular machine of the fleet of machines includes determining that the particular machine is off for at least a threshold amount of time; and

the method further includes omitting the current location of the particular machine in the location listing when the long-term communication status is determined to be off.