System and method for adaptive motion sensing with location determination

• US 7,486,174 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2006
• Issued: 02/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SkyBitz, Inc. (Ametek Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: SkyBitz, Inc. (Ametek Incorporated)
• Inventors: Yuan, Jianming, Battista, Rich
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg; George A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labbees; Edny
• Application Number:
  US11/377,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20070057779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207, 701/213, 701/216, 340/425.5, 340/988.8, 340/500, 340/3.71, 340/438, 340/439, 342/367
• US Class Current: 340/425.5
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• 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 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A system and method for adaptive motion sensing with location determination is described. In one embodiment, the adaptive motion sensor is based on vibration sensor readings and can identify different states of motions based on modifiable parameters.

Claims

1. An adaptive motion sensor system on a transport vehicle, comprising:

a vibration sensor;

an adaptive threshold component that receives input values based on readings of said vibration sensor, said adaptive threshold component identifying a threshold value between two peak values on a histogram of said received input values, said two peak values representing two different operating states of the transport vehicle; and

a motion detection component that receives input based on readings of said vibration sensor and said identified threshold value from said adaptive threshold component, said motion detection component determining an operating state of the transport vehicle through an analysis of said received input relative to said identified threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said two different operating states are engine on without movement and engine on with movement.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said vibration sensor is an accelerometer based micro-electro-mechanical system.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter coupled to said vibration sensor and a vibration filter that smoothes values produced by said analog-to-digital converter.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said adaptive threshold component match filters a raw histogram.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein parameters of said adaptive threshold component are configurable using data provided by external communication received by the adaptive motion sensor system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said external communication is a satellite communication.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said motion detection component compares received input values to said identified threshold value.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said motion detection component integrates successive results of said comparison, and compares said integration value to thresholds associated with said two different operating states during a configurable time period.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said configurable time period is determined by parameters that are provided by external communication received by the adaptive motion sensor system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said external communication is a satellite communication.

12. An adaptive motion sensor method in a transport vehicle, comprising:

a)generating input data from vibration sensor readings on the transport vehicle; and

b)determining an operating state of the transport vehicle based on an analysis of said input data relative to a threshold data value, wherein said threshold data value is adjustable based on an analysis of said input data through an identification of a null value between two peak values on a histogram of said input data, said adjustability being used to account for changes in operating characteristics of the transport vehicle over time.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising match filtering a raw histogram to produce said histogram.