FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20080154712A1
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Inventors: Wellman, Timothy A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,400 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/11
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/55 Remote control arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/589 Wireless data transfers
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/592 Data transfer involving external databases
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/80 Arrangements for controlling instruments
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/15 Fork lift trucks, Industrial trucks
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/07581 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/24 Electrical devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0282 generated in a local control room
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 : Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 : by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Systems of hardware and software are provided for enabling mobile assets to communicate across a wireless network environment. Systems, computer-implemented methods and computer program products are also provided for leveraging wireless communication and/or processing capabilities of mobile assets against a robust software solution to implement enterprise wide asset management functions, to integrate mobile asset data into existing enterprise workflows and/or to enable trusted third party integration into the enterprise for enhanced asset and/or workflow management.

Claims

1. A method of implementing inspection checklists for materials handling vehicles comprising:

requiring an operator to complete a checklist having a plurality of checklist items before deciding whether to enable the materials handling vehicle for normal operation, the checklist completed by performing for each of the plurality of checklist items at least;

presenting a next item in the checklist to the operator;

receiving a response to the presented item from the operator; and

recording the response from the operator;

performing an operator response verification for at least one of the plurality of checklist items by querying at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to determine whether the operator complied with a corresponding checklist item;

taking a predetermined action if the query results indicate that the operator did not complete the corresponding checklist item properly;

wirelessly conveying the checklist responses to computer for storage;

evaluating the results of the checklist; and

enabling the materials handling vehicle for normal operation if the results of completing the checklist indicate that the materials handling vehicle is suitable for operation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

requiring an operator to complete a checklist having a plurality of checklist items comprises asking the operator in at least one of the plurality of checklist items to verify that a select component of the materials handling vehicle is operational by operating that select component; and

performing an operator response verification for at least one of the plurality of checklist items by querying at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to determine whether the operator complied with corresponding checklist item comprises communicating with the select component over a vehicle bus to verify that the operator actually operated the select component according to the requirements of the corresponding checklist item.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

requiring an operator to complete a checklist having a plurality of checklist items comprises asking the operator in at least one of the plurality of checklist items to check a measurement or reading of at least one vehicle component; and

performing an operator response verification for at least one of the plurality of checklist items by querying at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to determine whether the operator complied with corresponding checklist item comprises communicating with the component to electronically verify that the response to the select checklist item regarding the measurement or reading has been answered correctly.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

performing an operator response verification for at least one of the plurality of checklist items by querying at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to determine whether the operator complied with corresponding checklist item further comprises refusing to advance to the next checklist item until the query response indicates that the checklist item has been performed.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting a time reference to initialize a start time for the checklist operation;

recording the time required to respond to the checklist items;

determining whether the time required to respond to the checklist items is within a predetermined range of times; and

taking a predetermined action if it is determined that the checklist items were answered outside of the predetermined range of times.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating whether an action is required in view of the checklist responses and taking an appropriate action if required by performing at least one of;

locking out the materials handling vehicle for operation based upon an answer to specified checklist item;

locking out the materials handling vehicle for operation based upon failure to complete the checklist within a prescribed period of time;

or

reducing functionality of the materials handling vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

changing at least one of the order in which checklist items are presented or changing whether an appropriate answer to at least one checklist item is in the affirmative or negative relative to a previous checklist operation.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

recording metadata associated with at least one operator response.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a language to present the checklist items to the operator based upon a language preference associated with the operator'"'"'s logon identification.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a predetermined override code that overrides the necessity to complete the checklist, where the override provides limited use of the materials handling vehicle in at least one of time of operation or vehicle functionality.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a predetermined time period for the operator to complete or otherwise redo the checklist if it is determined that the operator did not complete the checklist properly.

12. A method of wirelessly interacting with a materials handling vehicle to implement position dependent operation comprising:

providing a transceiver on a materials handling vehicle, the transceiver configured for wireless data communication across a wireless computing environment;

configuring a processor on the materials handling vehicle to communicate with the transceiver for wireless communication across the wireless computing environment to a corresponding server computer;

providing a device on the materials handling vehicle that is utilized to determine a position of the materials handling vehicle;

configuring the processor to communicate with the device to obtain information relating to the position of the materials handling vehicle;

configuring the processor to implement at least one function on the materials handling vehicle by wirelessly communicating the obtained position related information between the server computer and the materials handling vehicle via the transceiver such that the position of the materials handling vehicle is determined; and

interacting with at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to perform a predetermined action in response to receiving a command from the server computer based upon the determined position of the materials handling vehicle.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

creating geo-fence as a virtual designated area whose location is stored at the applications server;

wherein;

interacting with at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to perform a predetermined action in response to receiving a command from the server computer based upon the determined position of the materials handling vehicle comprises taking an action comprising at least one of an avoidance maneuver or a speed reduction in response to the materials handling vehicle approaching the geo-fence.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein taking an action comprises dynamically selecting the action based upon at least one current operating condition of the materials handling vehicle.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

receiving position information of a plurality of materials handling vehicles at the server computer;

selecting one of the materials handling vehicles whose position is closest to a designated location based upon the position information received at the server computer; and

wirelessly communicating a page message to the selected one of the materials handling vehicles.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein:

providing a device on the materials handling vehicle that is utilized to determine a position of the materials handling vehicle comprises providing a radio frequency identification reader on the materials handling vehicle that reads corresponding radio frequency tags located within an environment, wherein the materials handling vehicle position is determined by the applications server based upon a known location of a tag read by the reader on the materials handling vehicle.

17. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

configuring the processor to implement at least one function on the materials handling vehicle by wirelessly communicating information between the server computer and the materials handling vehicle via the transceiver and by interacting with at least one component of the materials handling vehicle by;

maintaining information related to vehicle position over a predetermined window of time;

logging data during vehicle operation over the window of time by obtaining information from at least one vehicle component across the materials handling vehicle network bus;

detecting a triggering event; and

wirelessly communicating an event report to the server computer to preserve the information recorded over the window in response to detecting the triggering event such the window captures position information over a period that includes at least one of just before the event, just after the event, or both before and after the event.