Enterprise fuel management system

• US 8,666,586 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: QT Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: QT Technologies LLC
• Inventors: Portocalis, Gerasimos A., Moser, Gail A., Wright, James R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US13/331,566
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29.3, 701/400, 701/468, 701482-485, 340/426.19, 340/426.2, 340/426.22, 702/182
• US Class Current: 701/29.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An enterprise fuel management system for managing fueling operations of an aircraft fleet operated by a fleet operator having a central computer system at a data center and operating aircraft at multiple airports avoids reliability problems associated with synchronizing a central database with local databases. Data collection units communicate collected fueling information wirelessly to a central data center, and the data collection units are not in direct communication with the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system. Moreover, the central data center gathers fueling information from the various data collection units and communicates the gathered fueling information to the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system as data messages for subsequent processing and action. In this way, the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system can maintain the only database of fueling information and flight information, obviating the need to synchronize the data in the fleet operator'"'"'s computer system with data in some other computer system.

Claims

1. An enterprise fuel management system for managing fueling operations of a fleet of aircraft operated by a fleet operator having a central computer system at a data center and operating vehicles at multiple locations, the system comprising:

a central data center in communication with the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system for forwarding data to the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system;

at each location one or more data collection units for collecting fueling information and forwarding it to the central data center, the data collection units communicating the collected fueling information wirelessly to the central data center, whereby the data collection units are not in direct communication with the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system; and

wherein the central data center gathers fueling information from the various data collection units and communicates the gathered fueling information to the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system as data messages for subsequent processing and action to enable the fleet operator to ensure that appropriate amounts of fuel are delivered to the aircraft during refueling.

2. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units comprise hand-held computer devices.

3. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units comprise in-cab computer devices.

4. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units comprise fuel data units mounted on trucks or stationary carts.

5. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units communicate wirelessly via cellular.

6. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units communicate wirelessly via WiFi.

7. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the data collection units communicate wirelessly via satellite.

8. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the fleet operator is an airline, the fleet vehicles are aircraft and the fleet locations are airports.

9. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 1 wherein the system is configured and adapted to allow the wireless communication between the handheld units and the central data center to be switched from one communication mode to another and back again to allow uninterrupted wireless communication despite temporary communication outages in one communication mode.

10. An enterprise fuel management system for managing fueling operations of a fleet of aircraft operated by a fleet operator having a central computer system at a data center and operating vehicles at multiple locations, the system comprising:

a non-synchronizing central data center in communication with the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system for forwarding data to the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system and for receiving data from the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system, the non-synchronizing central data center being operative for communicating data to and from the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system without maintaining a database of such information synchronized with the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system;

at each location one or more data collection units for collecting fueling information and forwarding it to the central data center, the data collection units communicating the collected fueling information wirelessly to the central data center; and

wherein the central data center gathers fueling information from the various data collection units and communicates the gathered fueling information to the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system as data messages for subsequent processing and action by the fleet operator'"'"'s central computer system so that the fleet operator can ensure that appropriate amounts of fuel are delivered to the aircraft during refueling.

11. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 10 wherein the data collection units comprise hand-held computer devices.

12. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 10 wherein the data collection units comprise in-cab computer devices.

13. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 10 wherein the data collection units comprise fuel data units mounted on trucks or stationary carts.

14. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 10 wherein the fleet operator is an airline, the fleet vehicles are aircraft and the fleet locations are airports.

15. The enterprise fuel management system of claim 10 wherein the system is configured and adapted to allow the wireless communication between the handheld units and the central data center to be switched from one communication mode to another and back again to allow uninterrupted wireless communication despite temporary communication outages in one communication mode.