Fleet position monitoring system
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising the steps of said mobile unit determining its position, determining its direction of travel, and transmitting information relating to its position to a central unit at intervals, wherein the interval between successive position transmissions is selected in accordance with the direction of travel of the mobile unit.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system which allows a central control unit to track automatically the positions of a fleet of mobile units. Each mobile unit carries a position updating apparatus which includes means to determine its position, and processing means in the form of computing equipment in communication with the position determining means. The processing means in turn controls a transmitting means, such as a radio transmitter of the private mobile radio system that the mobile unit uses for communication, for transmitting information to the central control. The position determining means and processing means are arranged to send the latest position of the mobile unit to the central control at intervals. The processing means stores a number of rules for determining the interval between the transmission of position update messages to the central control. These rules are based upon the direction of travel of the mobile unit and other factors, such as its location.
56 Citations
38 Claims
- 1. A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising the steps of said mobile unit determining its position, determining its direction of travel, and transmitting information relating to its position to a central unit at intervals, wherein the interval between successive position transmissions is selected in accordance with the direction of travel of the mobile unit.
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8. A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
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defining two or more predetermined locations;
defining a set of two or more predetermined position update intervals, each interval in the set being associated with one or more predetermined selection criteria each relating to the distance of the mobile unit from, or the direction of travel of the mobile unit relative to, one of the predetermined locations;
selecting an update interval from the set of predetermined update intervals on the basis of the predetermined selection criteria;
determining the position of the mobile unit; and
providing to a central unit updates of the mobile unit'"'"'s position at the selected predetermined interval.
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10. A method of selectively monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
the mobile unit determining its position, comparing the position determined with the position of a predetermined line, and when the determined position first exceeds a predetermined distance from said predetermined line, transmitting information relating to that event to a central unit. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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14. A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit comprising;
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defining a corridor joining two predetermined points along which the mobile unit is intended to travel;
the mobile unit determining automatically whether it has left the defined corridor, and providing automatically information relating to that event to a central unit when the mobile unit determines that it has left the defined corridor.
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29. A position updating apparatus, comprising:
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means for determining the position of the apparatus;
means for determining the direction of travel of the apparatus;
means for transmitting information relating to the position of the apparatus to a central unit at selected intervals; and
means for selecting the interval between successive position information transmissions on the basis of the direction of travel of the mobile unit. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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30. An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
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means for determining the position of the mobile unit;
means for storing the positions of two or more predetermined locations;
means for storing a set of two or more predetermined position update intervals, each interval in the set being associated with one or more predetermined selection criteria each relating to the distance of the mobile unit from, or the direction of travel of the mobile unit relative to, one of the predetermined locations; and
means for providing to a central unit updates of the mobile unit'"'"'s position at intervals selected from the set of predetermined update intervals on the basis of the predetermined selection criteria. - View Dependent Claims (33, 36)
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31. An apparatus for selectively monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
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means for determining the position of the mobile unit;
means for comparing the position determined with the position of a predetermined line; and
means for when the determined position first exceeds a predetermined distance from said predetermined line, transmitting information relating to that event to a central unit.
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32. An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
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means for storing the definition of a predetermined corridor joining two predetermined points along which the mobile unit is intended to travel;
means for determining whether the mobile unit has left the defined corridor, and providing information relating to that event to a central unit when it is determined that the mobile unit has left the defined corridor.
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37. A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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38. An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Specification