Multi-user motor vehicle telemetric system and method

• US 7,786,895 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoTab Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Netistix Technologies Corporation (GeoTab Incorporated)
• Inventors: Goodall, Colin David, Zoladek, Jacek Grzegorz, Preece, Douglas John, Pepper, Gary Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Albert K
• Application Number:
  US11/571,273
• Publication Number:
  US 20080012725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• Field of Search: 340/870.07, 340/905, 340/425.5, 340/438, 340/441, 340/531, 701/29, 701/33, 701/32, 701/34, 455/95, 455/99
• US Class Current: 340/870.07
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A multi-user vehicle telemetric system comprises vehicle interface units (VIUs), wireless gateways, and one or more central hosts. The VIU in a vehicle collects data over the OBD-II bus and stores the data in the form of DataPoint Records (DPRs) in an on-board non-volatile (e.g. flash) memory. When the VIU is within wireless range of a gateway, it establishes a WiFi (802.11b) connection with the gateway, and submits stored DPRs to the gateway, to be stored in permanent storage at the gateway. Although the DPRs are stored in permanent storage on the gateway, they are deleted from permanent storage on the gateway after they are successfully uploaded to the central hosts. The gateways are shared, and communicate with the central hosts over a wide area network (WAN). When a gateway has gathered new DPRs from a VIU, it submits these to selected central hosts. The central hosts collect vehicle data for a plurality of users, each user being assigned a central host exclusively, or sharing a central host with other users. Each of the VIUs may be exclusively accessed by a single user or a number of users, and the shared gateways forward DPRs from a VIU only to the central hosts of the users which are authorized to access the VIU.

Claims

1. A multi-user motor vehicle telemetric system, comprising:

(a) one or more central hosts connected to a communications network, each central host being associated with one or more users of the system;

(b) one or more gateways connected to the communications network, the communications network enabling the transfer of data between the gateways and the central hosts;

(c) one or more vehicle interface units (VIUs), each placed within a vehicle having access to sensors in the vehicle for collecting vehicle related data, each VIU having means for communication over a wireless link to gateways designated to be accessed by said each VIU when the VIU of the vehicle is within a transmission range of one of said designated gateways, and wherein each VIU is associated with one or more of the users;

(d) each central host having means for selecting gateways for collecting data from each VIU which is associated with the users that the central host is associated with;

(e) each central host having means allowing each user to specify the data to be collected from its associated VIUs through a data collection profile which is stored in the central host and the selected gateways;

(f) each gateway having means for recognizing the association between central hosts and VIUs belonging to the same user; and

(g) each VIU having a means for collecting the data, which is required to be collected according to a combined data collection profile for all users associated with said each VIU.

2. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the means (g) comprises a means for collecting the data, which is required to be collected according to a combined data collection profile, which is formed so that to avoid a duplication of data to be collected by each VIU between the users associated with said each VIU.

3. A system as described in claim 1, wherein some or all of the selected gateways are shared between two or more users.

4. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the selected gateways process the collected data according to the data collection profiles related to each of the users, and forward the processed data to the central hosts associated with the respective users.

5. A system as described in claim 1, comprising only one central host.

6. A system as described in claim 3, wherein all gateways are shared by all users.

7. A system as described in claim 1, wherein some users are associated with more than one central host.

8. A system as described in claim 1, wherein each central host is associated with only one user.

9. A system as described in claim 1, wherein each VIU is associated with only one user.

10. A system as described in claim 4, wherein each gateway has means for determining the associated VIUs and the central hosts.

11. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the means for determining includes means for processing the data received from the associate VIUs and forwarding respective subsets of the data to associated central hosts according to the data collection profiles related to each user that the central host is associated with.

12. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the means for determining comprises a database stored in a computer memory along with a software for data processing.

13. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the means in the VIU comprises a data collection table stored in a memory and a control program therefor.

14. A system as described in claim 13, wherein the data collection table comprises an entry for each type of data to be collected, and a collection specification regarding the time interval and the condition for performing the data collection and storage for each type of data to be collected.

15. A system as described in claim 14, wherein the entry for each type of data to be collected comprises a value identifier linking the type of data to be collected and the collection specification to the data collection profile.

16. A system as described in claim 15, wherein the entry for each type of data comprises designations specified by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).

17. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the access to sensors is provided by an OBD-II bus.

30. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the gateway serves more than one user, the gateway comprising:

(a) means for determining if the gateway is authorized to be accessed by said each VIU when the VIU of the vehicle is within a transmission range of said gateway,

(b) means for receiving the collected vehicle related data from said VIU, and processing and forwarding the processed data to the central hosts associated with same users that said each VIU is associated with, in accordance with the data collection profiles.

31. A system as described in claim 30, wherein the means (a) comprises a database stored in a computer memory along with a software for data processing.

18. A vehicle interface unit (VIU) for a multi-user motor vehicle telemetric system, comprising one or more central hosts connected to a communications network, each central host being associated with one or more users of the system, one or more gateways connected to the communications network, the communications network enabling the transfer of data between the gateways and the central hosts, the VIU being placed within a vehicle and having access to sensors in the vehicle for collecting vehicle related data, the VIU further having means for communication over a wireless link to gateways to be accessed by the VIU when the VIU of the vehicle is within a transmission range of one of said gateways, and wherein each VIU is associated with one or more of the users, each central host having means allowing each user to specify the data to be collected from its associated VIUs through individual data collection profiles which are stored in the central host and the gateways and forming a combined data collection profile forwarded to the VIU, the VIU comprising:

(a) means for storing the combined data collection profile; and

(b) means for collecting the data required to be collected from the vehicle according to the combined data collection profile for all users associated with said VIU.

19. A VIU as described in claim 18, wherein the combined data collection profile comprises a data collection table stored in a memory and a control program therefor.

20. A VIU as described in claim 19, wherein the data collection table comprises an entry for each type of data to be collected, and a collection specification regarding the time interval and the condition for performing the data collection and storage for each type of data to be collected.

21. A VIU as described in claim 20, wherein the entry for each type of data to be collected comprises a value identifier linking the type of data to be collected and the collection specification to the data collection profile.

22. A VIU as described in claim 20, wherein the entry for each type of data comprises designations specified by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).

23. A VIU as described in claim 18, wherein the access to sensors is provided by OBD-II bus.

24. A method for collecting vehicle performance data in a multi-user motor vehicle telemetric system, comprising one or more central hosts connected to a communications network, each central host being associated with one or more users of the system, one or more gateways connected to the communications network, the communications network enabling the transfer of data between the gateways and the central hosts, one or more vehicle interface units (VIUs), each placed within a vehicle having access to sensors in the vehicle for collecting vehicle related data, each VIU having means for communication over a wireless link to gateways designated to be accessed by said each VIU when the VIU of the vehicle is within a transmission range of one of said designated gateways, and wherein each VIU is associated with one or more of the users, the method comprising:

(a) at each central host, selecting gateways for collecting data from each VIU which is associated with the users that the central host is associated with;

(b) at each central host specifying for each user the data to be collected from its associated VIUs through data collection profiles which are stored in the central host and the selected gateways;

(c) at each gateway determining the association between central hosts and Vius belonging to the same user; and

(d) at each VIU, collecting the data required to be collected according to a combined data collection profile for all users associated with said each VIU.

25. A method as described in claim 24, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the collected data from said each VIU;

determining the central hosts which have the same user as the VIU;

for each host, filtering the collected data according to the data collection profile for that host; and

forwarding the filtered data to said each central host.

26. A method as described in claim 25, wherein the step of filtering comprises decoding and storing the data.

27. A method as described in claim 24, wherein the step (b) further comprises the step of forming a data collection table based on the combined data collection profile, the data collection table comprising an entry for each type of data to be collected, and a collection specification regarding the time interval and the condition for performing the data collection and storage for each type of data to be collected.

28. A method as described in claim 27, wherein the step of forming comprises introducing for each type of data to be collected a value identifier linking the type of data to be collected and the collection specification to the data collection profile.

29. A method as described in claim 27, wherein the step (d) comprises reading the data collection table, and for each type of data to be collected and the collection specification, collecting the data accordingly and storing it in a memory.