Position monitoring for communicable and uncommunicable mobile stations

• US 5,355,511 A
• Filed: 08/07/1991
• Issued: 10/11/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Hatano, Rikuo, Oka, Toshimitsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAROUEL, LISA
• Application Number:
  US07/741,376
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: 455/11.1, 455/12.1, 455/13.1, 455/15, 455/33.1, 455/33.2, 455/33.4, 455/53.1, 455/54.1, 455/54.2, 455/67.1, 379/58, 379/59, 379/60, 379/63, 379/61, 342/357, 342/457, 342/417, 342/419, 342/458, 340/988, 340/990, 340/991, 340/993, 340/995
• US Class Current: 455/11.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

An information communicating system and method comprising an order station and a plurality of mobile stations. When the order station cannot communicate with a mobile station, the order station selects one mobile station which is nearest to the uncommunicable mobile station and orders the selected mobile station to communicate with the uncommunicated mobile station. Communicable mobile station send information to the order station. The selected mobile station communicates with the uncommunicable mobile station appointed by the order station according to an order from the order station, and transmits the position information of uncommunicable mobile station to the order station. The order station displays the position of the mobile station to control movement of the mobile station.

Claims

1. An information communicating method for an information communicating system including an order station and a plurality of mobile stations each of which has its own position detector, comprising the steps of:

attempting to communicate with each mobile station to identify each communicable mobile station and each uncommunicable mobile station;

receiving position information from each communicable mobile station;

requesting one of said communicable mobile stations on communicate with an uncommunicable mobile station; and

receiving position information from said uncommunicable mobile station through said one of said communicable mobile stations.

2. An information communicating system comprising:

an order station; and

a plurality of independent mobile stations each of which includes its own position detector;

wherein at least one of said mobile stations includes a relay means for communicating with another mobile station by request of the order station, and for transmitting position information from said another mobile station to the order station.

3. A vehicle operation control method for a vehicle operation control system comprising a plurality of vehicles each of which includes a first communication device and a positioning device, and an order station including a second communication device which is communicable with said first communication device, comprising the steps of:

calling one of the first communication devices on one of the vehicles from said order station;

communicating information with said one of the vehicles if a response is received by said order station from said one of said vehicles;

identifying one of said vehicles not in communication with said order station;

identifying one of said vehicles in communication with said order station closest to said one of said vehicles not in communication with said order station; and

ordering the vehicle identified to be in communication with said order station to communicate information with the vehicle not in communication with said order station.

4. A vehicle operation control method for a vehicle operation control system in claim 3, further comprising using a global positioning system with each positioning device.

5. A mobile station position monitoring system comprising:

communication means for communicating with a communicable mobile station and for communicating with an uncommunicable mobile station, independent from said communicable mobile station, through said communicable mobile station; and

display means for displaying information from each mobile station,

wherein the communication means includes a first transmitting means mounted on an order station for transmitting an order to the communicable mobile station, a second transmitting means mounted on the communicable mobile station for transmitting information to the order station, request means mounted on the order station for requesting the communicable mobile station to communicate with the uncommunicable mobile station, and relay means mounted on the communicable mobile station for receiving the request from the order station, for obtaining information from said uncommunicable mobile station by communicating with said uncommunicable mobile station and for transmitting information from said uncommunicable mobile station to the order station, and

wherein said mobile station includes its own position detector wherein the information includes position information of each mobile station, and wherein the display means displays the position of each mobile station with a chart.