Fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system

• US 9,564,065 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2015
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TrueLite Trace, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TrueLite Trace, Inc.
• Inventors: Kwak, Sung Bok, Bae, Youri
• Primary Examiner(s): Troost, Aaron L
• Application Number:
  US14/693,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20160253924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 657 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles

Abstract

A novel fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system is capable of calculating a probability of persistent future fuel waste of a particular driver based on recent driving patterns originating from real-time on-board diagnostics (OBD) information of a vehicle. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system is also configured to generate and transmit one or more action items and alerts to a vehicle fleet operations manager or another supervisory personnel for improving driving behaviors of the particular driver. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system is typically either linked to or incorporated into the fuel waste variable identification and analysis system, which is capable of analyzing the real-time on-board diagnostics (OBD) information of the vehicle from a remote monitoring station unit. Preferably, various fuel waste variables are normalized with a novel metric called “RPG,” or “engine rotation per minute per gallon of fuel.”

Claims

1. A fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system comprising:

a vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) unit connected to an engine control unit or a vehicular control chipset of a vehicle to record, diagnose, and generate engine, vehicle dynamics, and fuel consumption data as streams of vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) data output;

a fuel savings training needs prediction module that calculates a probability of persistent future fuel waste and a primary fuel waste variable of a particular driver by analyzing the streams of vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) data output that has been transmitted to and accumulated by the fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system, wherein the fuel savings training needs prediction module comprises a fuel waste pattern identification module, a fuel waste prediction module based on fuel waste pattern analysis, a driver training needs determination module, and a driver fuel waste pattern improvement determination module;

a fuel savings training needs alert module that synthesizes and transmits a fuel savings training needs alert as a textual, aural, or multimedia alert to an electronic device accessed by a vehicle fleet operations manager or another supervisory personnel to the particular driver, wherein the fuel savings training needs alert module comprises a driver training needs alert message synthesis module, a driver training needs alert communication module, and a driver training confirmation and feedback module;

a fuel waste variable analytics module that receives the streams of vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) data output for detailed analysis and calculations of one or more fuel waste variables;

a fuel waste variable identification and analytics unit in the fuel waste variable analytics module, wherein the fuel waste variable identification and analytics unit sets threshold values for the fuel waste variables, retrieves historical fuel consumption data from a vehicle-specific OBD data history database, and calculates pre-RPG (engine rotation per minute per gallon of fuel) normalized fuel waste variables, a vehicle-specific RPG value, RPG-normalized fuel waste variables, and a fuel waste percentage value for a selected period of time interval; and

a semiconductor chip or a hardware device that contains the fuel savings training needs prediction module and the fuel savings training needs alert module.

2. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle-specific OBD data history database that accumulates, stores, and categorizes vehicle dynamics and fuel consumption data downloaded from the vehicle.

3. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor chip or the hardware device also contains a fuel waste variable identification and analytics unit and a vehicle-specific OBD data history database to calculate and display engine rotation per minute per gallon of fuel (RPG)-normalized fuel waste variables on a display panel in the vehicle or in a remote monitoring station unit.

4. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, further comprising an on-board diagnostics data transceiver unit in the vehicle and a data communication network to transfer data among the vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) unit, the fuel savings training needs prediction module, the fuel savings training needs alert module, and the electronic device accessed by the vehicle fleet operations manager or another supervisory personnel to the particular driver.

5. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the fuel waste variable identification and analytics unit in the fuel waste variable analytics module further comprises an OBD information management module, an RPG (engine rotation per minute per gallon of fuel) calculation module, a fuel waste variable calculation module, a fuel waste percentage calculation module, a vehicle location and route information management module, a fuel waste variable threshold setting module, and an information display management module.

6. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the fuel savings training needs alert comprises the probability of persistent future fuel waste, the primary fuel waste variable of the particular driver, and one or more action items for fuel savings training of the particular driver.

7. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the one or more fuel waste variables include over-speeding, over-revving, hard acceleration, hard braking, engine idling, traffic condition, engine condition, air flow sensor outputs, and engine coolant temperature.

8. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle-specific RPG value is a summation of engine rotation-per-minute (RPM) values multiplied by the selected period of time interval divided by a total fuel consumption during the selected period of time interval.

9. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the RPG-normalized fuel waste variables are derived by dividing the pre-RPG normalized fuel wasted variables by the vehicle-specific RPG value.

10. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 3, further comprising an information display management module for generating graphical data to display a driving pattern analysis report on the display panel in the vehicle or in the remote monitoring station unit.

11. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is a truck, a taxi, a van, or another vehicle operated and managed by a vehicle fleet company.

12. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the RPG-normalized fuel waste variables assist the particular driver of the vehicle to identify a specific factor for fuel waste from a fuel waste category that encompasses over-speeding, over-revving, hard acceleration, hard braking, or prolonged engine idling of the vehicle.

13. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the RPG-normalized fuel waste variables assist the vehicle fleet operations manager or another supervisory personnel to pinpoint a specific factor for fuel waste from a fuel waste category that encompasses over-speeding, over-revving, hard acceleration, hard braking, or prolonged engine idling of the vehicle.

14. The fuel savings training needs prediction and alert system of claim 1, wherein the fuel waste variable identification and analytics unit also calculates and keeps track of fuel waste variable trends over a day, a week, a month, a year, or another set period of time.