Method and apparatus for establishing meshed GPS network

• US 9,274,232 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2011
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Globaltrak LLC (ORBCOMM Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Globaltrak LLC (ORBCOMM Incorporated)
• Inventors: Richard, Meyers
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao
• Application Number:
  US13/290,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20120112959A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,578 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.25, 342/357.31, 342/450, 342/458, 342/464, 455/456.1, 455/456.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems

Abstract

An apparatus and method for determining real time location of assets by calculating the relative position of a plurality of GPS enabled devices transported together, taking advantage of multiple GPS enable devices being transported together including dual band GPS and averaging location data between US and European GPS data. Additionally, an IMB acts to receive GPS data from multiple devices in a shipment and IMB combines and averages data from both GPS systems to create more liable location determination.

Claims

1. A method for determining the relative location of monitored elements within a closed container, the comprising:

determining the dimensions of the closed container;

querying a plurality of monitored elements;

collecting responses from one or more monitored elements; and

determining the relative location of a monitored element based on a response time for the monitored element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises mapping the location of each asset based on the time of response to the query.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises transmitting location data for at least one monitored element to a remote location.