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Methods and apparatus for analyzing locate and marking operations with respect to historical information

  • US 9,208,464 B2
  • Filed: 10/01/2009
  • Issued: 12/08/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for automatically assessing a quality of a first locate and marking operation performed by a field technician using locating equipment to identify a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site of proposed excavation so as to facilitate mitigation of damage to the at least one underground facility during subsequent excavation activities performed at the work site, the first locate and marking operations being performed by the field technician in response to a locate request ticket that specifies the work site of the proposed excavation, the apparatus comprising:

  • at least one piece of locating equipment;

    a memory storing processor-executable instructions;

    at least one I/O interface;

    at least one display device;

    a processor communicatively coupled to the at least one piece of locating equipment, the memory, the at least one display device, and the at least one I/O interface, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the processor;

    A) performs electronic comparisons;

    A1) current facility type information relating to an underground facility identified during a first locate and marking operation and generated by the locating equipment, and historical facility type information related to at least one previously-performed historical locate and marking operation, so as to identify a first discrepancy between the current facility type information and the historical facility type information;

    A2) current facility location information related to an underground facility identified during a first locate and marking operation and generated by the locating equipment, and historical facility location information relating to at least one previously-performed historical locate and marking operation, so as to identify a second discrepancy between the current facility location information and the historical facility location information;

    B) automatically generates, based on the comparison in A1) and A2), at least one quality assessment indication for a quality assessment of the first locate and marking operation, adjusting the quality assessment more negatively for the first discrepancy relating to facility type information than on the second discrepancy relating to facility location information;

    C) electronically stores in the memory, and/or electronically transmits to at least one entity associated with the locate and marking operation or the excavation activities, via the at least one I/O interface, the at least one quality assessment indication to provide an electronic record of the quality assessment of the first locate and marking operation so as to facilitate the mitigation of damage to the at least one underground facility during the excavation activities performed at the work site; and

    D) displays the at least one quality assessment indication on the at least one display device.

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