Safety monitoring in systems of mobile assets

• US 9,659,500 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teletrac Navman US Ltd. (Vontier Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Navman Wireless North America Limited (Danaher Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagda, Paresh L., Todd, Nathan, Umashankkar, Beena
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mortell, John
• Application Number:
  US13/311,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20130141228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,996 Days
• Field of Search: 340439, 340936, 701124, 701 29, 701 33, 701 83
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

Systems and methods for safety monitoring are described. Mobile assets may receive safety monitoring notifications responsive to one or more safety criteria being met. A driver or other user of the mobile asset may be prompted to acknowledge the safety monitoring notification. If the user requests assistance or does not acknowledge the safety monitoring notification, notifications may be communicated to other individuals, e.g. supervisors. In this manner, the safety of, e.g. drivers in a fleet of vehicles may be monitored.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing safety monitoring notifications comprising:

a GPS receiver; and

firmware configured, at least in part, to;

evaluate safety criteria, the safety criteria including at least movement less than a threshold distance in a predetermined time period while an ignition is on;

provide a safety monitoring notification responsive to the safety criteria being satisfied;

generate a first event message indicating assistance is requested in response to receiving a first input from the user, the first input responsive to the safety monitoring notification and indicating assistance is requested; and

generate a second event message indicating that no assistance is requested in response to receiving a second input from the user, the second input responsive to the safety monitoring notification and indicating no assistance is requested;

cause transmission of the first event message or the second event message to a data center.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to provide the first event message to the data center over a network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the safety criteria includes include a sensor state, and the apparatus of claim 1 further comprising at least one processing unit configured to receive a sensor signal indicative of the sensor state.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the safety criteria include a combination of sensor signals.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said provide a safety monitoring notification comprises display the safety monitoring notification on a display.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said display comprises a touchscreen, and wherein the first input is received in response to the user touching a predetermined location of the touchscreen.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus further comprises a button, and wherein the first input is received in response to the user pressing the button.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the firmware is further configured to cause the apparatus to generate a third event responsive to a lack of response to the safety monitoring notification.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the safety criteria further include at least one of harsh braking, a rollover, a collision, and being outside a predefined location.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said first event comprises a message including a present location of the apparatus.

22. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the harsh braking includes deceleration above a threshold rate, and the predefined location includes a geo-fence.

11. A method for monitoring a plurality of mobile assets, wherein individual ones of the mobile assets include a computing device, the computing device providing safety notifications and receiving input from a user responsive to the safety notifications, the method comprising:

receiving an event message responsive to safety notifications from individual ones of the mobile assets, the event message indicating assistance is requested in response to the computing device receiving a first input from the user indicating that assistance is requested, and indicating no assistance is requested in response to the computing device receiving a second input from the user indicating that no assistance is requested, the event message including an identification of the respective asset providing the event message, the safety notifications being responsive to evaluation of safety criteria, the safety criteria including at least movement less than a threshold distance in a predetermined time period while an ignition is on;

storing the event messages in electronic storage;

providing information regarding assistance requests across different types of assets based, at least in part, on the stored event messages.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the information regarding assistance requests comprises a graph illustrating a frequency of the assistance requests.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the assets comprise vehicles and wherein the types comprise respective makes of the vehicles.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the event message further comprises an identification of a user associated with the asset, and wherein the information regarding assistance requests comprises a graph illustrating a frequency of assistance requests across different users using at least the stored event messages.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the assets comprise vehicles and wherein the users comprise drivers of the respective vehicles.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein the event message further comprise a location associated with the asset at a time a respective event message was generated, and wherein information regarding assistance requests comprises a graph illustrating a frequency of assistance requests across different locations based, at least in part, on stored event messages.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the event message is received from the mobile assets over a wireless network.

18. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

providing a first tier notification responsive to receipt of the event message indicating assistance was requested.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the first tier notification comprises a pop-up window notification.

20. The method according to claim 18, further comprising providing a second tier notification responsive to a failure to receive an acknowledgement of the first tier notification.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein the safety criteria further include at least one of harsh braking, a rollover, a collision, and being outside a predefined location.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the harsh braking includes deceleration above a threshold rate and the predefined location includes a geo-fence.

21. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device associated with a vehicle, if a safety check criteria is met;

providing a safety monitoring notification to a user via an output device of the computing device associated with the vehicle, responsive to a determination the safety check criteria is met, the safety criteria including at least deceleration above a first threshold for a period of time exceeding a second threshold, and movement less than a threshold distance in a predetermined time period while an ignition is on;

in response to receiving a first input from the user declining assistance, generating a first event message indicating no assistance is requested, the first input being responsive to the safety monitoring notification, and

storing the first event in a log;

in response to receiving a second input from the user requesting assistance, generating a second event message indicating assistance is requested, the second input being responsive to the safety monitoring notification, and

providing a first tier notification responsive to the second event indicating assistance is needed;

in response to no response from the user to the safety monitoring notification being received after a predetermined time, generating a third event message indicating assistance is needed, and

providing a notification responsive to the third event message indicating assistance is needed; and

in response to no response to the first tier notification being received after a predetermined time, providing a second tier notification.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the safety criteria further include at least one of harsh braking, a rollover, a collision, and being outside a predefined location.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the harsh braking includes deceleration above a threshold rate and the predefined location includes a geo-fence.