Vehicle-induced roadway debris monitoring

• US 8,742,909 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2012
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abuelsaad, Tamer E., Moore, JR., John E., Singi, Rajeshkumar N., Wentworth, Robert R.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US13/543,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20140009308A1
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/436, 340/641, 340/903, 340/905, 340/931, 340/937, 701/45, 701/117, 701/301, 348/143, 348/148, 280/738, 280/740
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A solution for monitoring vehicles for vehicle-induced roadway debris is provided. A reporting vehicle can include a set of sensors for detecting an incident relating to roadway debris. The reporting vehicle can automatically report the incident to a computer system, which can update an incident record for one or more monitored vehicles associated with the incident. The computer system can identify a set of monitored vehicles based on location data for each monitored vehicle and/or the reporting vehicle can be a monitored vehicle. The computer system can determine that a monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle and can initiate a safety action in response to the determination.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of monitoring vehicles, the method comprising:

receiving a debris report of an incident relating to vehicle-induced roadway debris from a reporting vehicle on a computer system, wherein the debris report is automatically generated by the reporting vehicle in response to detection of the incident;

updating, by the computer system and for each of at least one monitored vehicle, a corresponding incident record for the monitored vehicle based on the debris report, wherein the at least one monitored vehicle is distinct from the reporting vehicle;

evaluating, by the computer system and for each of the at least one monitored vehicle, the updated incident record to determine whether the corresponding monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle; and

initiating, by the computer system, a safety action to be performed on a monitored vehicle in response to a determination that the monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the debris report includes location information corresponding to a location for the reporting vehicle, wherein the method further comprises identifying the at least one monitored vehicle as being associated with the location, and wherein the updating is performed in response to the identifying.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting the vehicle-induced roadway debris caused by the reporting vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting an impact of the vehicle-induced roadway debris on the reporting vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the incident record comprises a count corresponding to a number of incidents associated with the corresponding monitored vehicle, and wherein the evaluating determines that the corresponding monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle in response to the count exceeding a preconfigured threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the safety action includes sending a notification to an entity managing maintenance of the monitored vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the safety action includes dispatching a road crew to a location associated with the debris report.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving location data for a subscribing vehicle; and

providing a warning to the subscribing vehicle in response to at least one of;

identification of a recent incident corresponding to the location data or identification of a potentially unsafe monitored vehicle corresponding to the location data.

9. A system comprising:

a set of computing devices for implementing a method of monitoring vehicles, the method comprising;

receiving a debris report of an incident relating to vehicle-induced roadway debris from a reporting vehicle, wherein the debris report is automatically generated by the reporting vehicle in response to detection of the incident;

updating, for each of at least one monitored vehicle, a corresponding incident record for the monitored vehicle based on the debris report, wherein the at least one monitored vehicle is distinct from the reporting vehicle;

evaluating, for each of the at least one monitored vehicle, the updated incident record to determine whether the corresponding monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle; and

initiating a safety action to be performed on a monitored vehicle in response to a determination that the monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the debris report includes location information corresponding to a location for the reporting vehicle, wherein the method further comprises identifying the at least one monitored vehicle as being associated with the location, and wherein the updating is performed in response to the identifying.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising the reporting vehicle, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting the vehicle-induced roadway debris caused by the reporting vehicle.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising the reporting vehicle, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting an impact of the vehicle-induced roadway debris on the reporting vehicle.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the incident record comprises a count corresponding to a number of incidents associated with the corresponding monitored vehicle, and wherein the evaluating determines that the corresponding monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle in response to the count exceeding a preconfigured threshold.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the safety action includes sending a notification to an entity managing maintenance of the monitored vehicle.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the method further includes:

receiving location data for a subscribing vehicle; and

providing a warning to the subscribing vehicle in response to at least one of;

identification of a recent incident corresponding to the location data or identification of a potentially unsafe monitored vehicle corresponding to the location data.

16. A system comprising:

a reporting vehicle including an onboard computer system for performing a reporting method comprising;

receiving data corresponding to an incident relating to vehicle-induced roadway debris from a set of sensors located on the reporting vehicle;

automatically generating a debris report based on the data; and

automatically transmitting the debris report for processing by a monitoring computer system remote from the vehicle; and

the monitoring computer system, wherein the monitoring computer system performs a monitoring method comprising;

updating, for each of at least one monitored vehicle, a corresponding incident record for the monitored vehicle in response to receiving the debris report, wherein the at least one monitored vehicle is distinct from the reporting vehicle;

evaluating, for each of the at least one monitored vehicle, the updated incident record to determine whether the corresponding monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle; and

initiating a safety action to be performed on a monitored vehicle in response to a determination that the monitored vehicle is an unsafe vehicle.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting the vehicle-induced roadway debris caused by the reporting vehicle.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the reporting vehicle includes a set of sensors for detecting an impact of the vehicle-induced roadway debris on the reporting vehicle.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the debris report includes location information corresponding to a location for the reporting vehicle, wherein the monitoring method further comprises identifying the at least one monitored vehicle as being associated with the location, and wherein the updating is performed in response to the identifying.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising a subscribing vehicle, wherein the monitoring method further includes:

receiving location data for the subscribing vehicle; and

providing a warning to the subscribing vehicle in response to at least one of;

identification of a recent incident corresponding to the location data or identification of a potentially unsafe monitored vehicle corresponding to the location data.