Management of materials on a construction site

• US 10,133,994 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2012
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trimble Inc.
• Inventors: Nichols, Mark E., Fosburgh, Bryn, Richardson, Christopher David, Gipps, Peter Graham, Darby, Jr., George Derrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Brockington, III, William S
• Application Number:
  US13/626,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20130024245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,247 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7, 705 8, 705 711- 742, 705 35, 705 37, 701 50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

In a computer implemented method for management of materials on a construction site, a status of a project which uses at least one material is determined by a computer system. A report is generated by the computer system. The report identifies a vehicle, from a vehicle pool, to be utilized to move the material and defines a load of the material which is to be moved by the vehicle, according to a mass haul plan, from a first location to a second location. The vehicle is identified based on results of a simulation. The status of the project is automatically updated by the computer system based on an actual size and an actual drop-off location of the load of the material moved by the vehicle. The computer system updates the report based on the updating of the status of the project.

Claims

1. A method for management of a cut and fill operation on a construction site, said method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a digital model of the construction site, the digital model identifying cut regions of the construction site where a material is to be removed and fill regions of the construction site where the material is to be deposited;

receiving, by the computer, information about each vehicle in a vehicle pool comprising a plurality of vehicles, the received information including type of each vehicle, load capacity of each vehicle, and operating costs of each vehicle, wherein the vehicle pool includes different types of vehicles having different load capacities and different operating costs;

generating, by the computer, a cost scenario that defines cost over distance for each vehicle in each vehicle pool based at least on the load capacity of each vehicle, the operating cost of each vehicle, type of the material, and moisture content of the material;

receiving, by the computer, site conditions including type of roads between the cut regions and the fill regions of the construction site and geological information about the cut regions;

generating, by the computer, a report based on the digital model, the cost scenario, and the site conditions that includes a machine work flow plan for each vehicle in the vehicle pool, each machine work flow plan identifying loads of the material that are to be moved by a respective vehicle and a travel route between said cut region and said fill region for each load;

transmitting, from the computer, a respective machine work flow plan to each vehicle in the vehicle pool;

receiving, by the computer and from each vehicle, an actual drop-off location of each load of said material moved by said respective vehicle and machine control information for said respective vehicle, wherein each vehicle is equipped with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) system and a machine control system;

calculating, by the computer, differences between actual movement of said material and planned movement of said material for each vehicle;

generating, by the computer, a new machine work flow plan for each vehicle that accounts for the difference between said actual movement of said material and said planned movement of said material for each vehicle;

transmitting, from the computer, a new respective machine work flow plan to each vehicle such that the new respective machine work flow plan replaces the respective machine work flow plan for each vehicle;

and implementing, by at least one vehicle, the new respective machine work flow plan, thereby modifying operations of the at least one vehicle based on the new respective machine work flow plan.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising updating the cost scenario based upon a change in availability of at least one of said plurality of vehicles of said vehicle pool.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the report models each movement of said material, with vehicles of said vehicle pool.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the respective machine work flow plan is wirelessly transmitted to each vehicle in the vehicle pool.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the travel route between the cut region and the fill region for each load is determined based on the type of roads between the cut regions and the fill regions.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the moisture content of said material is determined based on predicted weather conditions at the construction site.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said method further comprises:

defining at least one variable selected from the group consisting of;

a distance to move said material from said cut region to said fill region, a road condition between said cut region to said fill region, how fast said material can be moved from said cut region to said fill region, a time when said material is moved from said cut region to said fill region, and a weather variable.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said method further comprises:

receiving an indication of a weighted value which is used to assign a load of said material to a particular vehicle of said vehicle pool and wherein said weighted value is selected from the group consisting of;

minimizing cost and maximizing volume of said material.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said method further comprises:

receiving an indication selected from the group consisting of;

availability of an operator for a vehicle, and productivity of said operator of said vehicle.